EX CHRISTUS 

OUTLINE STUDY 
OF CHINA 




RTHUR H. SMITH 




Class I&Y^it/S^ 
Book. 1^6^ 

Copyright N^.. 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



^^^ 



REX CHRISTUS 



AN OUTLINE STUDY OF CHINA 



BY 

ARTHUR H. SMITH 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 

1903 

All rights reserved 



THE LIBRARY OF - 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Receivwi 

AUG 26 1903 

Copyright Entry 
CLAsi Ct XXc No 
COPY B. 






COPTEIGHT, 1903, 

By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 

Set up, electrotyped, and published August, 1903. 

PUBLISHED FOR THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE 
ON THE UNITED STUDY OF MISSIONS. 



Norbjootj ?Pregs 

J. S. Cnshing & Co. - Berwick & Smith Oo. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



!^\ 



STATEMENT 

OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE ON THE 

UNITED STUDY OF MISSIONS 

The plan of the United Study of IVIissions, which was 
inaugurated at the Ecumenical Conference in 1900, is no 
longer an experiment. The remarkable and increasing suc- 
cess of the enterprise encourages us in presenting this, the 
third text-book of our series. The sales of the first of the 
series, "Via Christi," by Louise Manning Hodgkins, have 
amounted to forty thousand copies, while the second book, 
"Lux Christi, An Outline Study of India," by Caroline 
Atwater Mason, has met with even greater success. 

Dr. Smith is too well known as our foremost writer on 
China to need any introduction. He has been ably assisted 
by Miss Frances J. Dyer, who has edited the book and 
prepared the supplementary material. 

China is in the foreground of the political world to-day, 
and the interests of the Kingdom of God m this vast empire 
demand the thoughtful, prayerful study of all Christians. 
May this little volume help toward that end. 

Mrs. NOKINIAN IVIATHER WATERBURY, Chairman, 

Tremont Temple, Boston, Mass. 

Miss E. HARRIET STANWOOD, 

70k Congregational House, Boston, Mass. 

Miss ELLEN C. PARSONS, 

Pres'byterian Building, 
156 Fifth Avenue, New York Ciiy. 

Mrs. J. T. GRACEY, 

177 Pearl Street, Rochester, N. T. 

Mrs. HARRIET L. SCUDDER, 

Chvyrch Missions House, 
kth Avenue and 22d Street, Neio YorTc City. 

Miss CLEMENTINA BUTLER, 

Secretary and Treasurer, 
Newton Centre, Mass. 
V 



PREFACE 

The object of this book is by no means to 
tell a little of everything that ought to be 
known about China, but rather so to present 
a few selected topics as to incite to a genuine 
study of the subject, by which alone it can be 
expected to make upon the mind its due im- 
pression. Lack of experience in the prepa- 
ration of manuals of this sort, together with 
limitations of time and the demands of a large 
parish, must be the inadequate apology for the 
many sins of omission which the discerning 
reader will not fail to discover. Standard 
authorities, such as Dr. Williams's "Middle 
Kingdom " and Professor Giles's " Historic 
China " have been often cited, sometimes with- 
out quotation marks. The reader should have 
at hand Mr. Beach's indispensable " Geography 
and Atlas of Missions," and make excursions 
in whatever direction seems most inviting, for 
which helps are abundant. 

The vast bulk of the Chinese Empire helps 

to disguise the fact that for some years it 

has been making rapid progress, even at times 

when to the eye nothing was apparent but ret- 

vii 



viii PREFACE 

regression. Adequately to treat of the present 
transition state of China would have required 
much ampler space than could be given in the 
closing chapters. 

There has never been a time when a larger 
and fuller knowledge of what China is to be 
was more necessary than to-day. There is no 
reason why every reader of this book should 
not contribute something toward the right 
settlement of some of the greatest and most 
difficult questions confronting the Christian 
world at the opening of the twentieth century. 



A. H. S. 



P'ang Chuang, Shantukg, China, 
April, 1903. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Statement of the Central Committee . . . v 
Preface vii 

CHAPTER I 

A Self-centred Empire 

Physical Features and Population — Cultivation of the 
Soil — Waterways and Loess — Climate and Food 
Products — Minerals — China's Rulers — The Leg- 
endary Period — The Chou Dynasty — The Tsin 
Dynasty — The Han Dynasty — A Dark Period . 

— The T'ang Dynasty — The Sung Dynasty — The 
Mongol Dynasty — The Ming Dynasty — The Man- 

chu Dynasty 1 

The Provinces of China 29 

Significant Sentences 39 

CHAPTER II 

The Religions of China 

Teachings of Confucius — Foundation Principles — 
Weak Spots in Confucianism — Universality of 
Temples — Comparison between Confucianism 
and Christianity — Taoism — Modern Taoism — 
Root of the Boxer Madness — Chinese Buddhism 

— The Dominant Religion — Temples to the Three 
Religions — Mohammedanism in China — Secret 
Sects 44 

Significant Sentences 80 

is 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER III 
The People of China 

PAGE 

Solidarity of Chinese Society — Fixity of Residence — 
Unity in Variety — Industry and Poverty — Puz- 
zling Problems — Sentiment toward Foreigners 

— Patriotism — Conservatism — How a Chinese 
Scholar views Christianity — Race Characteristics 

— Talent for Indirection — Suspicion and Distrust 
— Untruthfulness and Insincerity — Saving One's 
"Face" — Christianity a Solvent . ... 84 

"WAT3IAKKS IN THE HiSTORT OF MISSIONS IN ChINA . Ill 

Significant Sentences '. 115 

CHAPTER IV 

Christian Missions. Part I. From Earliest 

Times till near the Close of the 

Nineteenth Century 

Nestorian and Roman Catholic Missions — The Situa- 
tion To-day — Protestant Missions — The Pioneer 
Society — A True Yokefellow — Strong Founda- 
tions Laid — Arrival of Americans — Beginning of 
Medical Work — The Second Period, 1842 to 1860 

— Splendid Reinforcements — Translation of the 
Scriptures — Treachery in Treaties — The Third 
Period, 1860 to 1895— Evidences of a New Era 

— The China Inland Mission — Modus of Mission 
Work — The Second Step — The Peripatetic 
Preacher — Churches in Embryo — The Doctor 

and the Dispensary 120 

Significant Sentences 162 

CHAPTER V 

Christian Missions. Part II. On the Thresh- 
old OF THE Twentieth Century 

Woman's Work — The Educational Work — Day and 
Boarding Schools — Influence on the Community 



CONTENTS XI 

PAGB 

— A Birthday Gift to the Empress Dowager — Kin- 
dergartens — Bible Women and Other Workers — 
Medical Work — The First Medical College for 
Women — General Summary of the Third Period 

— The Great Famine — Two Notable Gatherings 
— Bible and Tract Societies — Literary Labors — 
Power of the Printing-Press — The Fourth Period, 
1895 to 1903 — A Wonderful Awakening — The 
Anti-Foot-binding Society — ;• Other Reforms — 
China in Convulsion — The Great Boxer Ris- 
ing — Effect on the Native Church — The 
Aftermath 167 

Significant Sentences 216 



CHAPTER VI 
The Open Door of Opportunity 



y 



A Modem Miracle — A United Church — Power of Re- / 
generated Lives — Educational Reforms — Educa- '^ 
tional Needs — The New China .... 221 

Significant Sentences 240 



APPENDIX 

List of Leading Missionary Periodicals . . 245 

Additional Articles in Periodicals . . . 245 

List of Twenty Books 247 

Statistics of Protestant Missions in China . . 249 

Index 253 



EEX CHRISTUS 

CHAPTER I 

A SELF-CENTEED EMPIRE 

The country which, we call China, but which 
its own people designate as the Central Empire, 
is one of the oldest and mightiest kingdoms of 
the earth. Its hoary antiquity stretches away 
into the mists of fable for unknown thousands 
of years, but that part of its history which is 
well within the bounds of certainty takes it back 
to the early dawn of civilization. Its situation, 
on the eastern edge of the great continent of 
Asia, makes it a natural and an inevitable centre 
of influence over many adjacent lands ; and this 
has been abundantly illustrated in its history, 
which has been that of superiority to all its 
neighbors. China lies almost entirely in the 
temperate zone, and in what the annals jof the 
human race have proved to be the belt of power, 
within which all the peoples which have made 
a deep mark on the tablets of time have had 
their habitation. 

Physical Features and Population. — China faces 
the east. Her mountains rise in height as one 
goes west, and it is from them that the great 

B 1 



2 BEX CHEISTUS 

rivers of this part of the globe take their rise, 
the Yang-tse, and the Yellow River. One 
of them is called China's Girdle, and pours 
an enormous stream of water every second 
into the Yellow Sea, draining a large portion 
of the empire. The other is well styled 
China's Sorrow, "bringing from the great 
plateaus of the desert of Gobi continents of 
sand and yellow mud, which are turned into 
the sea to shoal its waters and to make new 
land, while the floods burst their banks and 
devastate the whole province." In the north- 
eastern portion of China Proper, by which is 
meant the Eighteen Provinces, stretches one of 
the great plains of the earth, which occupies a 
large part of several provinces, from the moun- 
tains north and west of Peking to the southern 
side of the Yang-tse. 

Within an area averaging from 200 to 400 
miles in width, it is estimated that a popula- 
tion is to be found numbering more than 
170,000,000, so that parts of this region are the 
most densely populated in the world. China's 
millions are literally uncounted, and until some 
distant day, when western modes of adminis- 
tration are adopted, are likely to remain so. 
Without entering into the somewhat compli- 
cated question of the probable population of 
the empire, it may be suggested that since all 
censuses are but " a pagoda of guesses," one 
must be governed by general probabilities in 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 3 

lieu of relative certainties. Perhaps the total 
of 400,000,000 may not be too large, but 360,- 
000,000 is perhaps a more reasonable estimate. 

The coast line of China is 2000 miles in 
length, well furnished with excellent harbors. 
The Chinese have never been a maritime people, 
but their country has unrivalled facilities for 
intercourse with all the rest of mankind. The 
area of China Proper is only about one-third 
of the whole empire, or about the size of 
that part of the United States east of the 
Rocky Mountains. It is seven times as large 
as France, fifteen times the size of the United 
Kingdom of Great Britain, and nearly half 
as large as the whole of Europe. Whence 
came the stock from which the population of 
this land is descended has not yet been deter- 
mined, but it is known that they first appeared 
at the northwest, along the banks of the Yellow 
River, to the vicinity of which the earliest set- 
tlements were largely confined. They were a 
pastoral people, as is evidenced, among other 
ways, in the language. The word signifying 
" righteousness," " justice," " rectitude," is com- 
posed of the ideographs for me (or my) and 
sheep, denoting that the one who was content 
with his own cattle and sheep was the standard 
of virtue. 

Cultivation of the Soil. — The Chinese people 
are themselves a conglomerate composed of many 
different strains. It was not till the T'ang 



4 REX CHRISTU8 

dynasty (620-907 a.d.) that the southern por- 
tions of what is now China were incorporated 
into the common rule, and this was effected 
but gradually. To this day the southerners 
call themselves the "Men of T'ang." From 
their first experiments in the cultivation of 
the soil the Chinese showed great skill in 
adapting themselves to the peculiarities of the 
particular region in which they settled. What- 
ever was once gained as a part of the common 
stock of experience was handed down from age 
to age, and has become almost a second nature. 
Perhaps no people have greater skill as irri- 
gators of the soil. They know how to level a 
tract of land in such a way that the water will 
always run in the desired direction ; how to 
divert streams where they are needed ; how to 
raise water from lower levels by the Persian 
wheel, the screw of Archimedes, by the well- 
sweep, the windlass, and by willow baskets slung 
on ropes held by two men who, with dextrous 
toes, throw the water from the surface of the 
river to the cultivated gardens above. Much of 
the farming is practically gardening because the 
holdings are so small, and the owner is quite 
aware of the importance of the rotation of crops, 
and is incomparably better acquainted than most 
of his Occidental neighbors with wise ways of 
fertilization. But for the incessant economy 
practised in all parts of the empire in the 
preparation and use of " poudrette," China 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIEE 5 

would never have been able to raise enough 
food for the support of its uncounted millions. 
Waterways and Loess. — Aside from the 
two great rivers already mentioned, the empire 
is abundantly supplied with large streams, 
which, from ancient times, have been avenues 
for a great internal commerce. The Chinese 
have always shown the greatest skill in the 
opening of artificial waterways, and all China 
was interpenetrated with canals at a time when 
one such existed in Europe. In the central 
parts of the eighteen provinces this is espe- 
cially the case, the ramifications of these boat 
roads being intricate and innumerable. A 
large part of the northern area of China is 
covered to a greater or less extent with a 
peculiar soil named, from an analogous phenom- 
enon in the valley of the Rhine, "loess." It 
is an extremely porous, brownish-colored earth, 
readily pulverized by the fingers, and capable of 
becoming an impalpable dust of great penetrat- 
ing power. The regions where this peculiar 
soil occurs abound in cave dwellings cut out 
of the loam, photographs of which are to be 
found in many books of travel. The appear- 
ance of an extensive loess formation, like that 
to be met with in the mountains separating 
Shansi from Chihli, with its singularly regular 
terrace formation, interspersed with many wide 
and deep chasms, is one of the remarkable 
sights of China. The occurrence of this soil, 



6 BEX CHBISTUS 

which was for a long time a geological puzzle, 
has much to do with the great population sup- 
ported in regions where it occurs, for it is 
capable of producing immense crops without 
aid of fertilization. 

Climate and Food Products. — In a country 
stretching through more than twenty-five de- 
grees of latitude, it may readily be seen that 
there is every variety of climate, from the 
dreary cold winters of Manchuria to the damp 
chill of the southeast in winter, alternating 
with torrid heats in summer. The variations 
of temperature in many parts of the Great 
Plain amount to a hundred degrees Fahren- 
heit for the year, but sudden alternations of 
heat and cold are far less common than in 
the same belt throughout North America. 
In most parts of China there is a rainy season 
and a dry, but the confines are not as dis- 
tinctly marked as in India. The rains begin 
at the southeast of China in March and ex- 
tend northward, till by July the whole of the 
Great Plain ought to have its share. When- 
ever the supply is delayed or is inadequate, the 
greatest anxiety is everywhere felt, for drought 
is the synonym of famine. 

The food supply of the empire is of the 
most varied description, including a wide range 
of cereals and fruits, from those cultivated 
in the extreme north to the tropical treasures 
of the south. Rice has always been a staple 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 7 

food of the Chinese, although in the northern 
portions it is a mere luxury, and, except 
by name, often altogether unknown. Wheat 
is almost universal, and is considered the 
best food known to man, while millet, va- 
rious kinds of sorghum, barley, buckwheat, oats, 
and maize are to be found in different regions. 
Sugar-cane is raised in the south. The magnifi- 
cent grass which we know as the bamboo is 
one of nature's best gifts to China, as to many 
other lands, and it is a current proverb that no 
one should live where it will not thrive. Its 
varieties are endless and its uses innumerable. 
Its shoots are employed as food, and with a 
sweet syrup as a confectionery. Its shafts are 
put to countless service in the construction of 
dwellings, and in making nearly every article 
needed for the use of man or woman. The 
character for bamboo written over that of a ruler 
means " to govern," showing the conception of 
what a magistrate ought to be; and the verb 
" to bamboo " may connote every grade of pun- 
ishment, from a slight beating up to the extinc- 
tion of life itself. The tallow tree is one of the 
eccentricities of China, of which the fullest use 
has been made. 

The wealth of the provision made for man 
in this great empire is well matched by the 
almost unequalled talent displayed by man 
for discovering ways in which the varied 
needs of the race may be met by the illimitable 



8 BEX CHRISTUS 

resources placed at its disposal. The Chinese 
are not keen sportsmen, but they greatly excel 
in fish culture, and they have long been famous 
for their success in making rivers, streams, and 
the great ocean tributary to their claims. It is 
not without reason, in view of the lavish gifts 
bestowed upon them, that the Chinese consider 
themselves the most favored people on the earth. 
China is, in fact, an empire which might be 
practically independent of the rest of the world, 
as for so many ages it has been, — a circumstance 
which has done much toward fostering that over- 
weening national conceit which has often brought 
on conflicts with other nations. 

Minerals. — The mineral wealth of China is to 
a large extent unexplored, but enough is known 
to make it probable that it is in excess of that 
of any other land, except, perhaps, the United 
States. The coal deposits in particular, which 
are found in immediate contiguity to illimitable 
supplies of the best iron ore, are probably the 
largest in the world, and the coal-bearing area 
has been estimated at not less than 419,000 
square miles, unequally distributed through 
every one of the eighteen provinces. Iron and 
coal are the basis of our present civilization, 
and the apparently inexhaustible supply in the 
Chinese Empire must ultimately affect in ways 
not yet evident the destiny of the human race. 
It is not the so-called useful minerals only 
which are to be found, but almost all others, 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 9 

with the exception of platinum. Gold, silver, 
copper, tin, lead, quicksilver, could be produced 
in enormous quantities with the improved 
methods used elsewhere. But accompanying 
this vast and immeasurable potential wealth 
is the blighting superstition of " Feng-shui " 
(literally wind- water), which contraindicates 
the disturbance of the soil beyond a certain 
depth, lest the " earth-dragon " be offended and 
nameless ills ensue. 

The province of Ssuch'uan has salt wells of 
great depth, from which, with rude machinery 
and clumsy skill, is extracted the brine which 
is afterward evaporated into an article oL 
commerce. In the province of Shansi there 
is a great lake of dry salt which furnishes a 
supply for a large region. Along the coast 
salt is obtained from the water of the sea, 
and, its sale being a government monopoly, 
is an important source of revenue. Great 
as are the resources of the empire, it is prob- 
able that but a fraction of them has as yet 
been put to use. They still await that scien- 
tific development without which they are largely 
useless to their owners, and to mankind at 
large. 

Into this magnificent inheritance the earliest 
colonists came, and in possession of it they 
have ever since remained. The Chinese are 
the only people who have never left their origi- 
nal seats, and who, having once entered upon 



10 BEX CRBISTUS 

certain lines of race activity, have never been 
deflected from them. 

China's Rulebs 

A brief recapitulation in merest outline of 
the history of this remarkable people may fitly 
accompany a sketch of the empire in miniature. 

It is not surprising that the uncritical Chi- 
nese annalists have amused themselves, and 
flattered the national vanity, with a catalogue 
of long ages of mythical monarchs, who reigned 
under impossible conditions for fabulous periods. 
No actual weight is attached even by Chinese 
writers to these tales of prehistoric epochs, 
which simply serve to fill in what would other- 
wise be blanks, in the manner of the geogra- 
phers of whom Swift complained that they 

" O'er uninhabitable downs 
Place elephants for want of towns." 

The Legendary Period. — Every Chinese is 
ready to talk of the good old days of Yao, 
and Shun, his successor, when the morals of 
the people were so ideal that doors and win- 
dows were not closed at night, and nothing 
dropped on the road was picked up by any 
one but the owner. According to the notions 
of Chinese chronologists, the close of the 
legendary period would bring one to the 
beginning of the twenty-second century B.C., 
when the Hsai dynasty begins with the great 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 11 

Yu, who by liis engineering skill drained away 
a terrible inundation. The Emperor Shun was 
made the head of the state on account of 
his filial piety, " in recognition of which, wild 
beasts used to come voluntarily and drag his 
plough for him, while birds of the air would 
guard his grain from the depredations of in- 
sects." Even as far back as this period there 
was a comparatively advanced state of civili- 
zation. The system of knotted cords as a 
means of notation of ideas had given place to 
notches on wood, and these in turn to rude out- 
lines of natural objects. It is from a limited 
number of such that the ideographs of the Chi- 
nese language in use to-day have sprung, but 
not without many intermediate processes of 
alteration. There was in the earlier ages a 
" tadpole " character which is now illegible, and 
survives in but a few examples. 

There was at that time no such thing as 
paper, the only books being bamboo tablets 
inscribed with a sharp stylus, but none are 
now extant. This was followed by writing on 
silk, but ink in the modern shape (hard blocks 
rubbed up with water for the use of the soft 
brush used in writing) was introduced much 
later. 

The Chou Dynasty. — The Chou dynasty, 
where we are at last on comparatively firm his- 
torical ground, began in the year 1122 B.C., 
and extended until 255 B.C. During these nine 



12 BEX CHBISTUS 

centuries the history of European nations was 
in its infancy. The Trojan War had just ended, 
and the monarchy of Israel had begun. The 
whole brilliant period of Grecian history was 
contemporaneous with this dynasty, and in it 
the Eternal City was founded. What the 
Chinese are to-day has its roots in the ancient 
period of the Chous. Their language, their 
ideas, their administration of their government, 
and above all their elaborate ceremonial, with- 
out which China would not be China, all take 
their origin here. So, too, with their national 
literature and their great sages, Confucius and 
Mencius, the one born 551 B.C., and the other 
372 B.C., each of them in what is now the prov- 
ince of Shantung. Few individuals in the an- 
nals of the human race have more powerfully 
influenced so large a number of their fellow-men 
as these two Chinese, and, what is more re- 
markable, their authority once established has 
never been disputed. 

In these early days war was carried on 
with bowmen on the one side and spearmen 
on the other. " The centre was occupied by 
chariots, each drawn by three or four horses, 
harnessed abreast. Swords, daggers, shields, 
iron-headed clubs some five or six feet in 
length and weighing from twelve to fifteen 
pounds, huge iron hooks, drums, cymbals, 
gongs, horns, banners and streamers innumer- 
able, were also among the equipment of war." 



A SELF-CENTEEB EMPIRE 13 

From this descriptive snatch, the discerning 
reader is able to recognize the root of much of 
the noisy, showy, and tawdry display which 
is the accompaniment of every Chinese public 
function to-day. 

The Tsin Dynasty. — The Chou dynasty broke 
down finally, though it had lasted for almost a 
millennium. It was followed by the reign of 
one of the greatest men China has ever produced, 
who arrogated to himself the title of the First 
Emperor (Ch'in Shih Huang), and who raised 
the state of Ch'in, at the head of which he 
had been for twenty-six years, to the sover- 
eign place among the various subordinate king- 
doms, and then swept away the entire feudal 
system, by means of which the Chou emperors 
had divested themselves of the cares of govern- 
ment, and divided the empire, including vast 
tracts which he had annexed on the south, into 
thirtj^-six provinces, "thus effecting a revolu- 
tion which, after a lapse of 2000 years, history 
has seen repeated in Japan." 

This restless Napoleon of China despatched 
an expedition to look for some mysterious 
islands off the coast. He was the builder of the 
Great Wall, which skirts the eighteen provinces 
for a distance of nearly 1400 miles, from Shan 
Hai Kuan on the present Gulf of Pechili, to 
the Great Desert at the western terminus of 
the empire. This gigantic work, which was the 
continuation of other defences already existing 



14 BEX CHRISTUS 

against the outer barbarians, was completed by- 
means of forced labor and incredible cruelty 
in the space of ten years. It is difficult to 
understand how such a task could have been 
accomplished at all, and the fact that it was so, 
has been rightly regarded as an incidental proof 
of a large population. The boundless ambition 
of the First Emperor was not satisfied with 
these great works of statesmanship and of 
public utility, but he thirsted to have all liter- 
ature recreated with his reign. He issued an 
order for the destruction of all books (with cer- 
tain exceptions), but finding his literati in- 
tractable, he caused many hundreds of them to 
be buried in pits, and the books were burned. 
The prodigious memories of the Chinese schol- 
ars who survived the early fall of the emperor 
enabled them to reproduce the greater part of 
the works destroyed, but many of them were in 
an incomplete condition. 

The name of this monarch has been held in 
detestation by the scholars of China ever since, 
and though his consolidation of the empire re- 
mained, the death of his son, after a brief reign 
of three years, put an end to the dynasty. 

The Han Dynasty. — Under different names 
this lasted for a period of about four hundred 
years, nearly evenly divided by the opening of 
the Christian era. Our Lord was born in the 
first year of the Emperor P'ing Ti, " Prince of 
Peace," a coincidence often remarked upon. 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 15 

During this long period the empire was becom- 
ing more settled, and was advancing in civiliza- 
tion. There was a general revival of learning, 
and the books so precious to scholars were 
rescued from the hiding-places to which they 
had been banished under the destructive First 
Emperor. Ink was invented, and it was used to 
compile voluminous commentaries on the recov- 
ered classics, which were now printed on paper 
made from the bark of trees. 

In the latter portion of the second century 
B.C. lived the Herodotus of China, Ssu Ma 
Ch'ien, who composed the first connected and 
comprehensive survey of the records of China, 
beginning from the mythical period of the 
"Yellow Emperor," and extending to about 
a century before the Christian era. A great 
lexicographical work called the " Shuo Wen " 
also appeared within this period, which shows 
that the principle of phonetic formation of char- 
acters was the same then as at present. It was 
during the Han dynasty that the Buddhist reli- 
gion was brought to China, in response to the 
request of envoys sent in consequence of an 
imperial dream. It is supposed that a Jewish 
colony entered China at the same time, but 
neither then nor at any subsequent period did 
it attract serious attention from the Chinese, 
who nicknamed these singular people the 
"sinew-plucking sect." It is from the Han 
period that literary degrees take their rise, and 



16 BEX CHRISTUS 

perpetual rank was conferred on the descend- 
ants of Confucius, whose teachings at this time 
made their way to Japan, where they held 
undisputed sway until within the past few 
decades. 

A Dark Period. — The Han was followed by 
the epoch of the Three Kingdoms, a time of 
bloodshed and civil war, mainly of interest to 
us at this day on account of a celebrated histori- 
cal novel from which it takes its name, parts of 
which are repeated in tea-shops and enacted in 
plays all over China. The characters in this 
stirring drama are better known by far than 
contemporary statesmen, of whom the common 
people never hear anything and for whom if 
they should hear they would not care. After 
the Three Kingdoms ensued a variety of minor 
dynasties, the enumeration of which would only 
serve to tease the reader, the appearance and 
the disappearance alike not affecting the gen- 
eral progress of events. 

The T*ang Dynasty. — The next great period 
is the T'ang dynasty, from 620 to 907 A.D., dur- 
ing which time, as Dr. Williams remarks, " China 
was probably the most civilized country on earth; 
the darkest days of the West, when Europe was 
wrapped in the ignorance and degradation of 
the Middle Ages, formed the brightest era of 
the East. They exercised a humanizing effect 
on all the surrounding countries, and led their 
inhabitants to see the benefits and understand 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 17 

the management of a government where the 
laws were above the officers." The T'ang is 
one of the most brilliant epochs in the history 
of the Flowery Land, and its second emperor, 
T'ai Tsung "may be regarded as the most 
accomplished in the Chinese annals, — famed 
alike for his wisdom and nobleness, his con- 
quests and good government, his temperance, 
cultivated tastes, and patronage of literary 
men." He established schools and instituted 
a system of literary examinations. He had the 
Confucian classics published under the super- 
vision of the most learned men in the empire, 
and took great pains to prepare and preserve 
the historical annals of the recent dynasties. 
His broad dominions extended to the borders of 
Persia and the Caspian Sea, embracing large 
parts of Central Asia. 

The reign of his son (Kao Tsung) was as 
imbecile as that of his father had been glorious. 
His empress obtained control over him, and 
after his death, for twenty-one years usurped 
the throne, murdering all who opposed her will, 
and assuming such titles as Queen of Heaven, 
Holy Mother, and Divine Sovereign. By a 
palace conspiracy her son at length removed 
her, and she died in seclusion at the age of 
eighty-one years. About the year 722 a census 
of the fifteen provinces is said to have given a 
total of more than 52,884,000. 

It was in the T'ang period that Buddhism 



18 HEX CHRISTUS 

attained its greatest successes, the whole land 
being filled with its temples and its worship, one 
of the later emperors determining to receive with 
the highest honors a bone of the founder, Shaky a- 
muna. Against this one of his ablest ministers 
made a famous protest, the text of which is 
familiar to all scholars even to-day, and is 
regarded as a masterpiece of argument and 
invective. The result was the banishment of 
the remonstrant to the remote and barbarous 
regions of the south, near the present port of 
Swatow, from which he was, however, recalled 
later, and has since been canonized under the 
title of Prince of Literature. 

Only six years after the Hegira of the Prophet, 
the followers of Mohammed are supposed to 
have entered China. In the following century 
a force of Arab soldiers was sent to China to 
assist in quelling an insurrection, and as a 
reward they were allowed to settle in the coun- 
try. During this dynasty the greatest Chinese 
poets flourished, and a complete collection of 
the works of the epoch are arranged in 48,900 
pieces in 900 books. The use of paper money 
dates from this time, and it is thought that the 
originals of the Court Circular, or what is now 
called the Peking G-azette, are here to be found. 
Tradition has also assigned to this dynasty the 
beginning of the almost universal practice of 
binding the feet of girls, but there is no docu- 
mentary evidence as to its introduction. Its firm 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 19 

grip on the people is one of the most singular 
facts in this land of strange phenomena. 

The Sung Dynasty. — The Sung dj-nasty, 
which after a few decades of minor rulers suc- 
ceeded the T'angs, is divided into the Northern 
Sung and the Southepn Sung, having its capital 
at what is now Hangchou in Chekiang, in order 
to be safer from the troublesome Tartars, by 
whom the dynasty was at length overthrown, 
after a duration of 167 for the former and 158 
years for the latter, each branch furnishing nine 
emperors. 

The period is notable chiefly for its literary 
men, not for its rulers, especially for Chu Hsi, 
the great commentator on the Chinese classics, 
whose interpretations have totally obliterated 
those of the scholars of the Han, and have been 
the sole and only Confucian orthodoxy ever 
since, a literary triumph which for thoroughness 
and permanence has few parallels in history. 
A historian named Ssu Ma Kuang produced one 
of those works which for voluminousness are 
typically Chinese, being completed in 294 books. 
Another historian called Ma Tuan Lin wrote 
a history in 348 books. It is productions of this 
description which give point to the Chinese 
aphorism that "In order to know the Ancient 
and the Modern it is necessary to read five cart 
loads of books." 

Another noted name in the Sung dynasty 
is that of a socialistic statesman who introduced 



20 BEX CHBISTUS 

plans which were many hundred years in advance 
of his time. He wished to have the whole body 
of the people liable to military drill and for 
service in time of need, and he devised a system 
of state loans to farmers, in order to supply them 
with more capital. His schemes were disallowed, 
and have become way-marks in the Chinese 
desert to show where not to go. The little Tri- 
metrical Classic which is the first book put into 
the hands of schoolboys on entering school, also 
dates from this time, as well as the authorized 
list of Chinese surnames, now also a part of the 
routine instruction of every pupil. 

The Mongol Dynasty. — The next dynasty was 
a relatively short one of about eighty years, and 
is of interest because it was the first time that 
the outer barbarian had gained the imperial 
throne. The new incumbents were Mongols, 
under the noted Genghis Khan, who occupied 
Peking in the year 1264. The great Kublai 
Khan, who held the sway of the empire for 
fifteen years, was an enlightened monarch who 
did much to consolidate his rule by wise plans, 
but the Mongol material upon which he had to 
work was incomparably inferior to the Chinese, 
and the dynasty came to an end after a few 
inglorious reigns, and was supplanted by the 
Mings. It was in the Mongol or Yuan dynasty 
that Marco Polo came to China, and most of 
what we know of the mediaeval potentate, Ku- 
blai Khan, comes from the marvellously vivid 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIBE 21 

narrative of the great Venetian, whose work had 
so little acceptance during his lifetime that 
when on his dying bed he was urged to repent 
of all his sins, and to confess the falsehoods 
which he had told about Cathay ; which, being 
an honest reporter, he stoutly refused to do. 
He visited large parts of the empire and had 
a varied experience both as guest and as an offi- 
cial. His patron, Kublai Khan, greatly extended 
the work of the dissolute Yang Ti (of the Sui 
dynasty, 605 a.d.) and united the Yang-tse and 
Yellow Rivers by the Grand Canal, one of the 
greatest and most useful of China's internal 
improvements. 

The Ming Dynasty. — It is a striking fact, well 
enunciated by Dr. Williams, that amid all the 
revolutions in China none have been based upon 
a principle. Each one has been a mere change 
of masters, with no better appreciation than 
before of the rights of the subject, or of the 
powers and duties of the rulers. From the 
standpoint of the Chinese this is due to the fact 
that the original principles upon which the 
empire was founded were ideally perfect, and all 
that remained was to put them into practice. 
Whenever the Son of Heaven fails to do this, 
he has lost " Heaven's decree," and is by a divine 
right turned out to make room for another who 
has received it. 

The founder of the Ming dynasty was a man 
named Chu Muan Chang, who had experienced 



22 BEX CHBISTU8 

the deepest poverty, and had at one time been 
a Buddhist priest. His parents and elder 
brother had died of starvation, and being too 
poor to put them in coffins, he was forced to 
bury them in straw. The last emperor of the 
Mongols had degenerated into a voluptuary 
and was in the hands of his ministers a mere 
puppet. The great abilities of Chu enabled him 
by rapid stages to seize the sceptre of power, 
and in the year 1368 he mounted the Dragon 
Throne, taking the title of Hung Wu, by which 
name he is best known to foreigners. This, it 
will be recollected, was a century and a quarter 
before " Columbus crossed the ocean blue," but 
to the Chinese of to-day, accustomed to measure 
time by millenniums, it appears a period about 
as distant as " before the war " to an American. 
The new emperor, in addition to his military 
genius, showed almost equal skill in the admin- 
istration of the empire, and also became a liberal 
patron of literature and education. He organ- 
ized the present system of examinations, re- 
stored the dress of the T'ang dynasty, published 
a penal code, abolished punishment by mutila- 
tion, regulated taxation, put the coinage upon 
a proper basis with government notes and cash 
as equal currency. The capital was fixed at 
Nanking, but the son of Hung Wu wrested the 
power from his nephew to whom it had been 
given, and removed the seat of government to 
the ancient Cambaluc of the Mongols, the mod- 



A SELF-CENTREB EMPIRE 23 

ern Peking, taking the title of Yung Lo, by far 
the best known of the sixteen Ming emperors. 
In his progress to seize Peking he committed 
enormous excesses, and so devastated all the 
regions through which he passed that not a man, 
woman or child, not a cat or dog, remained alive. 
This is popularly referred to by every one as 
his "sweeping the north." As a result it be- 
came necessary to bring compulsory immigrants 
to Chihli and Shantung, in order to repeople 
the land, and every family will tell you that 
they "came from" some remote place, such as 
Hung Tung Hsien in Shansi, or Lai Chou Fu 
in Shantung, some nineteen generations ago, 
back of which, unfortunately, their family 
registers do not go ! 

The incursions of the Tartars from the north 
were incessant, but Yung Lo found time amid 
many activities to patronize literature on a scale 
hitherto unprecedented. At his behest a gigan- 
tic encyclopsedia was prepared, intended to col- 
lect in one work the substance of all the classical, 
historical, philosophical, and literary works 
hitherto published. The task was intrusted to 
a committee of 3 presidents, 5 chief direc- 
tors, 20 sub-directors, and 2169 subordinates. 
The work was finished in the year 1407, con- 
taining in all 22,877 books besides the table of 
contents, which occupied sixty books, the whole 
being called Yung Lo Ta Tien or the Institutes 
of Yung Lo. Only two copies were ever made. 



24 BEX CHBISTUS 

One was destroyed in a great fire in Nanking, 
and the other was ruined or captured in the 
burning of the Han-lin Yuan in Peking, during 
the memorable siege in that city in the summer 
of 1900. Several hundred volumes only were 
rescued, and are now dispersed all over the 
world, a melancholy end to one of the greatest 
intellectual labors even of the Chinese. 

The sixteen emperors of the Ming period 
ended their rule in 1644, having like all their 
predecessors lost the " Decree of Heaven." The 
feuds with the Tartars were incessant, and dur- 
ing one of the insurrections the latter entered 
Peking unopposed, and their leader was quite 
ready to accept the invitation to ascend the 
throne, — which he did. The last Ming emperor 
stabbed his daughter and hung himself on a 
pine tree on the east side of the " Coal Hill" in 
the palace grounds in Peking. During the 
foreign occupation of that city this tree was 
pointed out to visitors, still flourishing, but 
blighted on the side where the Son of Heaven 
ended his inglorious reign. The leading Chinese 
general assented to the occupation of the throne 
by the Manchu Tartars, who called themselves 
the Ch'ing, or Great Pure Dynasty, on con- 
dition that no Chinese woman should be taken 
into the imperial seraglio, and that the first 
place in literary degrees should never be given 
to a Manchu. It was also agreed that while 
women should be allowed to retain their former 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 25 

style of dress, the men should adopt that of the 
Manchus, although suffered to bury their dead 
in the Ming costume. A part of the stipulation 
as to the dress of the men was the acceptance of 
the Manchu queue, which for a long period in the 
southeastern portions of the empire was strongly 
resisted. Even to this day in those regions a 
turban is worn, the survival of an effort to 
conceal what was then felt to be a national 
disgrace. 

The Manchu Dynasty. — It was only a quarter 
of a century after the landing of the Pilgrims on 
Plymouth Rock that the Manchus began their 
long rule over the magnificent possession into 
which they had come almost without effort. 
The second emperor, whose style is K'ang Hsi, 
came to the throne when he was but eight 
years of age and took the government into his 
own hands at fourteen, making a striking and 
instructive parallel with the history of Louis 
Xiy of France, their two reigns being con- 
temporaneous for more than half a century. 

K'ang Hsi was undoubtedly one of the com- 
paratively few really great monarchs who have 
ruled the Celestial Empire. He greatly ex- 
tended his frontier on the west, consolidated his 
power everywhere, and established regulations 
which have contributed to the peace and pros- 
perity of China ever since. He was indefatiga- 
ble in his devotion to state affairs, liberal in his 
expenditure for public ends, and anxious to 



26 BEX CHBISTUS 

promote the welfare of his people. He has been 
termed the most successful patron of literature 
the world has ever seen, causing to be published 
four great works of continental scope, any one 
of which would have distinguished any ruler, 
aside from the great lexicon to which he has 
given his name. He governed China for the 
almost unprecedented period of sixty-one years, 
and was succeeded by his son, Yung Cheng, in 
1722. 

He in turn was followed by his famous son, 
Ch'ien Lung (or Kien Lung), who, after ruling 
sixty years, resigned the throne for the very 
Chinese reason that it would not be filial to 
outdo his grandfather ! He was also a patron 
of literature, and a poet of great merit, his 
productions reaching the astonishing total of 
33,950, many of which however were very short. 
Like K'ang Hsi he extended the boundaries of 
the empire, but wasted revenues on the support 
of large armies. He received embassies from 
the Russians, the Dutch, and the English, which 
tended to confirm the Chinese in their inefface- 
able conviction that China is the real centre of 
the universe, and all under the heavens merely 
tributary, — a theory which was to bear bitter 
fruits in the ensuing century. 

The next emperor, Chia Ch'ing (Kia King), 
vv^as dissolute and superstitious, and his reign of 
twenty-five years was disturbed by rebellions on 
land and pirates by sea. He was fgllQwed in 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 27 

1820 by his son Tao Kuang, during whose reign 
China had to face unprecedented troubles, — a 
rebellion in Turkestan, an insurrection in For- 
mosa, and a rising in Kuangtung. But all these 
combined were trifling when compared with the 
dark cloud rising on the horizon from the pres- 
ence of the outer barbarians, who had been for 
some centuries trading at Canton, but who now 
broke out into what the Chinese considered to 
be " open rebellion." 

This was the Opium War between Great 
Britain and China, in which, while there was 
much to regret on the foreign side of the case, 
there was abundant reason for the conflict aside 
from the special issues on which it was waged. 
It was terminated by the Treaty of Nanking in 
1842, of which Dr. Williams has justly remarked 
that whether regarded from the political, com- 
mercial, moral, or intellectual standpoint, it was 
"one of the turning-points in the history of 
mankind, involving the welfare of all nations in 
its wide-reaching consequences." By it, in ad- 
dition to Canton, were opened the ports of Amoy, 
Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai, — the promise 
and potency of the ultimate opening of all China 
which has not yet been effected. 

Just as this emperor quitted the stage the 
great T'ai P'ing Rebellion broke out, which rav- 
aged a large part of the empire, and shook the 
dynasty to its foundations, resulting in the loss 
of perhaps twenty millions of lives. This, after 



28 BEX CHBISTUS 

fifteen years of ruin, was finally put down by 
the aid of foreigners, of whom General Charles 
George Gordon was the chief. 

In the inglorious reign of the Emperor Hsien 
Feng another war with foreign powers took 
place, ending in the capture of Peking (October, 
1860) by the allied British and French forces, 
and the flight of the emperor, who died on a 
hunting excursion in his ancestral home in Man- 
churia in August, 1860. The next incumbent 
was a mere child, the son of an imperial concu- 
bine, who took the style of T'ung Chih, but he 
had barely attained his majority when he died 
of smallpox, January, 1875. The affairs of 
state had been in the hands of the empress 
mother, and the empress dowager, together 
with Prince Kung, a brother of the late 
emperor. 

Another infant was now set upon the throne 
and another regency began, the events of which 
are fresh in the memories of those who know 
anything of China; but for those who do not, 
it would be difficult to summarize them in the 
space at our disposal. There was a sort of 
war with France in 1844, in which the Chinese 
were not decisively beaten. There was another 
far more serious conflict with Japan ten years 
later in which China was humbled to the dust; 
but her semi-Bourbon leaders learned nothing 
and forgot everything, and the country drifted 
on. The attempted reforms of the emperor in 



■ o-pinjr ''if^Z/^ 




Gulf of 






Korea BaU^ 



"o-^^ 







A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 29 

1898 ended in his virtual dethronement and 
practical imprisonment. The union of a great 
variety of causes brought about a profound dis- 
content in the minds of millions of his subjects, 
which resulted in 1899-1900 in the outbreak of 
the most singular crusade in the annals of man- 
kind, ending in the capture of Peking by the 
allies, August 14th, 1900. The court fled to 
distant Si Ngan Fu, long the capital of the 
empire under many dynasties, but returned 
nearly a year and a half later, in what was vir- 
tually a triumphal progress, to continue the diffi- 
cult task of confronting the twentieth century 
with the ideas and the ideals which would have 
been wholly appropriate to the T'ang and the 
Sung. 

THE PROVINCES OF CHINA 

It is convenient to have a general conspectus of the 
various provinces of the Chinese Empire, with a note 
of the (theoretical) population, and the area. The fig- 
ures of the former are taken from the Statesman's Year 
Book for 1902, and though mere conjectures in some 
instances, and obviously erroneous in others, they answer 
very well for a rough approximation to truth. In con- 
formity to a common practice the Chinese names have 
been translated, with a view to a greater vividness of 
impression ; but it is to be remembered that the meaning 
is altogether lost sight of in common speech, and that 
in the cases where the province is named from some of 
its chief cities, the title never had any meaning. 

I. Chihli. (Direct Rule, because it contains the capital 
of the empire.) Population 17,937,000 ; area 58,949 square 



30 BEX CHRISTUS 

miles. The metropolis, which is usually termed Peking, 
or the Northern Capital, is properly designated as 
Shun T'ien Fii, "the most interesting and unique city 
in Asia," about twenty-one miles in the circuit of its 
walls. Since its last occupation by the allies, it enjoys 
the distinction of being the only capital in the world 
which gives residence to a large number of foreign 
ambassadors who live in a separate quarter, protected 
by little armies of their own, within fortified legations. 
Next to Shanghai, Tientsin is the most important point 
in China, situated some thirty-five miles from the sea, at 
the junction of the Grand Canal with two other streams 
which form the " Sea Kiver," navigable by steamers to 
Tientsin only. The population of Peking and of Tientsin 
cannot be known with any approximation to accuracy, 
but may be three-quarters of a million for the former, 
and half a million for the latter. Since the foreign 
occupation, the wall of Tientsin has been removed and 
great changes of many sorts have taken place. Tientsin 
is the commercial emporium of the greater part of Chihli 
as well as for considerable portions of Honan, Shantung, 
Shansi, and Manchuria. In the immediate future it will 
be an even more important distributing centre than at 
present. It will also be a railway terminus and junction, 
not only for the existing lines to Peking, eighty miles 
northwest, and to Newchwang to the east, but also of 
the Anglo-German line to Chinkiang on the Yang-tse. 
It will likewise be a place of educational and of manu- 
facturing importance. Pao Ting Fu, one hundred miles 
south of Peking, is the provincial capital, though during 
the incumbency of Li Hung Chang the seat of govern- 
ment was practically removed to Tientsin, to which place 
it has again reverted. Most of Chihli is a part of the 
Great Plain, but the north and west are mountainous. 
The vicinity of the seashore, as well as large tracts inland, 
are often covered with a nitrous efflorescence fatal to 
cultivation. Much of the plain is subject to inundations, 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 31 

in consequence of which the inhabitants are frequently 
reduced to great misery. 

2. Shantung. (East of the Mountains.) Population, 
36,247,000 ; area, 53,762 (or, according to others, 65,104) 
square miles. This province has a long and an irregular 
coast line which is half the length of the whole circuit. 
The larger part of the land belongs to the Great Plain, 
but mountains extend from Chi Xan Fu, the capital, to 
the Shantung promontory. The true Grand Canal ter- 
minates at Lin Ch'ing Chou, the remainder of the route 
to Tientsin being by a river called (on the maps) the 
Wei. The city of T'ai An Fu is seated at the base of 
T'ai Shan (Great Mountain), the oldest historical moun- 
tain in the world, still much visited by pilgrims. Con- 
fucius and Mencius were natives of Shantung, in what 
is now the prefecture of Yen Chou Fu. The port of 
Chiao Chou (Kiao Chou), occupied by the Germans in 
1897, is on the southeast. They have built a railway 
to Wei Hsien and Ch'ing Chou Fu, which will soon be 
extended to the capital, and will connect with the future 
Tientsin- Chinkiang trunk line. The principal port is 
Chefoo, north of the promontory. Wei Hai Wei, not far 
distant, was in 1898 leased to the British as a partial 
counterbalance to the Russian occupation of Port Arthur. 

3. Kiangsu. (River Thyme, from the initial syllables 
of Kiang Ning Fu, commonly called Nanking, or Southern 
Capital, and Soochow or Su Chou Fu, the principal cities.) 
Population, 20,905,000; area, 44,500 square miles. This 
province is one of the best watered in China, being mainly 
plain and marsh with the Yang-tse River running through 
it, and the Grand Canal, as well as numerous other 
streams, several lakes, and endlessly ramifying smaller 
canals. Nanking was the seat of government for China 
in the days of the first emperor of the Mings. Soochow, 
before it was ruined by the T'ai P'ing Rebellion, was a 
splendid city, and was linked with Hangchow as in the 
estimation of the Chinese the most desirable spot on 



32 BEX CHBISTUS 

earth, only to be compared with Heaven. Foreigners 
have styled Soochow the Paris of China. Shanghai is the 
commercial metropolis of the empire. Its foreign settle- 
ments are an epitome of the best and the worst that 
western civilization has to confer on China, and are grow- 
ing with rapid strides. Chinkiang, an important port 
on the Yang-tse, was ruined by the T'ai P'ing Eebellion, 
but was rebuilt, and is again flourishing.. 

4. Chekiang. (Tidal-bore River.) Population, 11,- 
588,000 ; area, 39,150 square miles. One of the smaller 
of the eighteen provinces, largely hilly or mountainous, 
with numerous rivers, rich valleys, large cities, and 
abundant productions, of which silk and tea are the 
chief. In the principal river of the province there is 
a famous tidal bore, which is one of the sights of China. 
Hangchow, the capital, was also the capital of China in 
a part of the Sung dynasty, and is the southern terminus 
of the Grand Canal. Ningpo, at the junction of three 
rivers, is the most important port of the province. 

5. Fukien. (Happily Established.) Population, 22,- 
190,000 ; area, 38,500 square miles. This is another one 
of the smaller provinces, especially since the large island 
of Formosa was wrested from China by Japan at the 
close of the war in 1895. Although almost entirely 
hilly or mountainous, Fukien is supposed to have a 
large population. The lofty hills are terraced to the 
very top, yet the area of arable land is insufficient for 
the support of the inhabitants. 

Foochow, the capital, thirty-four miles from the sea on 
the river Min, is a large (and filthy) city, which was 
made a treaty port in 1842. Owing to the strong com- 
petition of the Ceylon and India leaf, and the consequent 
decline of the tea trade, the importance of Foochow as a 
commercial centre has declined. Amoy, another of the 
five ports opened by the treaty just mentioned, in the 
southeast of the province, is beautifully situated on an 
island, with an excellent harbor. It has been the centre 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 33 

of a foreign trade for nearly two hundred years. Fukien 
is noted among the provinces of China for the great 
number of its local dialects, and for their mutual unintel- 
ligibility. The people are turbulent in disposition, and 
have been styled the " Irishmen of China." The literati 
are peculiarly proud and conceited. The Ku Ch'eng 
massacre of 1895 exhibited the unreasoning fury of 
the ignorant peasants. According to Professor Warneck, 
the number of Protestant Christians in Fukien (25,409) 
was, in 1901, larger than that in any other province. 

6. Kuangtung. (Broad East.) Population, 29,706,000 ; 
area, 79,456 square miles. This is the most southeastern 
province, and the one longest known to foreigners, as well 
as the one from which come nearly all Chinese immigrants 
to the United States. It includes also the large island 
of Hainan. The province is watered by three large 
streams, the West, North, and East Rivers, which are 
estimated to drain 150,000 square miles of territory, and 
which combine to form the Pearl River (Chu Kiang), on 
which is situated the city of Canton (Kuang Chou Fu), 
distant about ninety-five miles from Hongkong. The 
population of Canton is supposed to be not less than a 
million souls, and is increasing. The Cantonese are very 
enterprising and the best merchants in China, but are 
endued with an unlimited capacity for exploding in anti- 
foreign and anti-dynastic outbreaks. The relation of 
Canton to early foreign trade, and to the beginnings of 
China missions, has been mentioned elsewhere. The 
settlement of Macao, about forty miles from Hongkong, 
near the mouth of the estuary of the Pearl River, has 
long been occupied by the Portuguese and contains a 
considerable population, but its commercial importance 
was extinguished by the rise of Hongkong. Swatow, on 
the northeast, was made a port by the treaty of 1858, and 
Pakhoi, in the southwest, by the Chefoo Convention of 
1876. 

7. Kuangsi. (Broad West.) Population, 5,151,000 ; 



34 BEX CHRISTUS 

area, 78,250 square miles. This is probably the most 
sparsely settled province in the empire, and has been 
pronouncedly anti-foreign. Its principal commercial 
city, Wu Chou Fu, has recently been made accessible 
to steamboat traffic. The great T'ai P'ing Rebellion 
had its rise in Kuangsi. At present (1903) a large part 
of the province is overrun by rebels whom the impe- 
rial troops are unable to put down. There are many 
tribes not of the Chinese race within the boundaries of 
Kuangsi, who are ruled by the authorities only in an 
indirect way. 

8. Kueichou. (Noble Region.) Population, 7,669,000 ; 
area, 64,554 square miles. The people of this remote 
province are rude, ignorant, and turbulent. It is con- 
sidered to be in all respects the poorest of the empire. It 
has considerable mineral wealth, especially deposits of 
mercury, which have been worked for centuries, and are 
said to be of unequalled richness. The provincial capital 
is the smallest in China, with walls not more than two 
miles in circuit. 

g. Yunnan. (Cloudy South.) Population, 11,721,000. 
(There is evidently a gross error in this total, which ought 
to be reduced by more than one-half.) Area, 107,969 
square miles. This is the most extreme southwestern 
province of the empire, some of its remoter cities accord- 
ing to Chinese reckoning being more than 3000 English 
miles from Peking. It was subdued in the T'ang dy- 
nasty, and is therefore one of the more recent additions 
to the eighteen provinces, not dating from much more 
than ten centuries ago. Yunnan has an extensive central 
plateau, with valley-plains at an elevation of from 5000 to 
6000 feet. Like the last mentioned provinces, it is largely 
occupied by tribes owning but nominal allegiance to the 
Chinese government. " The mineral wealth of Yunnan 
is greater and more varied than that of any other prov- 
ince, certain of its mines having been worked ever since 
the Sung dynasty." The French are energetic and 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 35 

untiring in their endeavors to exploit this part of China, 
which certainly cannot long remain in its present in- 
accessible and undeveloped condition. 

10. Ssuch'uan. (Four Streams.) Population, 67,712,- 
000 ; area, 166,800 square miles. This, the largest province 
of China, takes its name from its principal rivers, which 
are all tributary to the mighty Yang-tse. The western 
part is mountainous, the eastern fertile and populous, and 
for ages has had a high civilization. The productions 
are abundant. The seat of government (Ch'eng Tu Fu, 
the Completed Capital), in the midst of a large and 
thickly populated plain, is supposed to have a million 
inhabitants. Since Ch'ung Ch'ing (Chungking) has 
been made the residence of foreign consular officials, 
and since the upper Yang-tse has been navigated by 
steamboats, the vast possibilities of this imperial do- 
main are coming to be better understood, and there is 
keen competition between the British and the French 
for railway and mining concessions. The salt wells of 
the province have long been famous. Lolo tribes are 
scattered through the western portions of Ssuch'uan. 

11. Hunan. (South of the Lakes.) Population, 21,- 
002,000 ; area, 74,320 square miles. Like the province last 
mentioned, Hunan has four principal rivers, the basin 
of which is extremely populous. The capital, Ch'ang 
Sha Fu, is a large and an ancient city, supposed to have 
a million inhabitants. The people of this province are 
high-strung and imperious. Some of the most promi- 
nent statesmen of the past generation, notably the Tseng 
family, are Hunanese. The province has long been 
known as the most obstinately anti-foreign in China. 
It was a boast that no missionaries could find lodgment 
there, whatever they might be able to do elsewhere. 
In the early nineties this bitter feeling exploded in the 
anti-Christian " Hunan Tracts," which showed unparal- 
leled venom and depravity. During the reform move- 
ments of 1898 Hunan was much stirred, and at length 



36 BEX CHRISTUS 

greatl}" enlightened. It may be said to be now really- 
open, and there are at present more than fifty mission- 
aries in its limits. The great trunk railway line from 
Hankow to Canton will tap the best sections of Hunan, 
and cannot fail to be a great benefit to it. 

12. Hupeh. (North of the Lakes.) Population, 34,- 
244,000; area, 70,450 square miles. The capital, Wu 
Ch'ang Fu, with Hankow, a treaty port, and Han Yang, 
at the mouth of the important Han River, together con- 
stitute the most important commercial and industrial gan- 
glion in the empire, and an unrivalled missionary centre. 
Hankow is the southern terminus of the Lu Han rail- 
way from that city to Peking, which is nearly half com- 
pleted. The wonderful Yang-tse gorges between I 
Ch'ang Fu and the Ssuch'uan border, with cliffs rising 
to the height of between 1000 and 2000 feet, are among 
the chief sights of China. 

13. Kiangsi. (West of the River.) Population, 24,- 
534,000 ; area, 72,176 square miles. This province is 
drained by the Kang Chiang, and is largely hilly or moun- 
tainous. Its treaty port is Kiukiang on the Yang-tse. 
The great Sung dynasty philosopher, Chu Hsi, lived at 
Nan Kang, west of the Po Yang Lake. Kiangsi has long 
been famous for the porcelain which takes its name from 
the empire, and which is unrivalled elsewhere. 

13. Anhui. (Peace and Excellence, from the names 
of two of its chief cities.) Population, 20,596,000 ; area, 
48,461 square miles. This province lies on both sides of 
the Yang-tse. Although the population is dense, it is far 
less than before the T'ai P'ing Rebellion. Green tea is 
largely exported. The late Li Hung Chang v/as a native 
of Anhui, and many other prominent officials hail from 
there. The capital is An Ch'ing, also written Ngan- 
king, and Ganking, on the Yang-tse. 

15. Honan. (South of the Yellow River.) Population, 
22,115,000; area, 66,913 square miles. Much of this 
province is a part of the Great Plain, fertile and popu- 



A SELF-CENTBED EMPIRE 37 

lous. It is an ancient and a historic section of the 
empire, which was first settled along the banks of the 
Yellow River. The capital, K'ai Feng Fu, was once that 
of the emph'e. The Yellow River has frequently changed 
its course near this point, sometimes flowing north to the 
Gulf of Pechili, and sometimes southeast to the Yellow 
Sea. In 1888 it again broke out toward the southeast, 
becoming, as it chronically does, " China's Sorrow," but 
was later restored to its former channel to inundate 
Shantung instead of the two provinces to the south. 

i6. Shansi. (West of the Mountains.) Population, 
12,211,000; area, 56,268 square miles. This is one of 
the frontier provinces, and is supposed to have been " the 
original seat of the Chinese people." It is a series of 
elevated table-lands bounded by mountains. The soil 
presents many extraordinary phenomena in the loess 
deposits, with their deep clefts, the terraces rising in 
different levels as far as the eye can reach. The mineral 
wealth of Shansi, especially in iron and coal, is appar- 
ently inexhaustible, the former being equal to any in the 
world and the latter found in quantities estimated to 
sufBlce for the whole world for more than a thousand 
years. The entire province, once wealthy, is cursed with 
the opium habit. Shansi men are famous all over China 
as business factors, and especially as bankers. The 
mountain passes from Chihli are great arteries of travel, 
and Dr. Williams thinks that these highways " when new, 
probably equalled in engineering and construction any- 
thing of the kind ever built by the Romans." 

17. Shensi. (Western Passes.) Population, 8,432,000 ; 
area, 67,400 square miles. The capital of this province 
is Si Ngan Fu (also wiitten Singan and Hsi An Fu), 
which has been the capital also of the empire for a longer 
period than any other city. It was the refuge of the 
Chinese court after the occupation of Peking by the 
allies in 1900. The N'estorian Tablet is in an old temple 
court beyond the west suburb. Si Ngan Fu, a city with 



38 REX CERISTUS 

lofty walls and of a far more imposing appearance than 
Peking, is a distributing point of the first class, being 
the principal back door of China. The basin in which it 
is situated is fertile, but owing to the disastrous Moham- 
medan rebellion in the sixties, still not thickly populated. 
The same is yet more the case in other parts of the prov- 
ince. This is one of the most ancient parts of the 
empire. 

i8. Kansuh. (Willing Reverence, from the names of 
two leading cities.) Population, 9,285,000 ; area, 125,450 
square miles. This vast stretch of territory was set off 
from Shensi more than a century ago, and its western 
part extends to the terminus of the Great Wall, and be- 
yond to the desert of Gobi. This insures control of the 
important passages toward the provinces to the eastward. 
Kansuh was devasted by the great Mohammedan rebellion 
just mentioned, and there have been repeated outbreaks 
since. The eastern part yields productions similar to 
those of the Great Plain. There are mineral deposits of 
unknown value mainly undeveloped. 

Besides these eighteen provinces there is a vast tract 
to the north of them, denoted by the general term Man- 
churia, the original home of the present Manchu dynasty. 
It is divided into three provinces, Shinking (also written 
Sheng Ching), Kirin (or Chi Lin), and Chi Chi Har (or 
Tsitsihar). Manchuria has been largely colonized by 
immigrants from Shantung, and the inhabitants have 
proved far more receptive of Christian truth (presented 
to them by the Scotch and Irish Presbyterian Missions), 
despite their initial bitter opposition, than almost any 
part of the eighteen provinces. Since the cession to 
Russia of the right to build through these provinces the 
Siberian railway and to guard it, the whole territory has 
become Russianized. It was occupied by Japan after her 
war with China, but the European Powers would not 
allow her to keep it. Its complete absorption, euphemis- 
tically styled " painless identification " by Russia, threair 



A SELF-CENTRED EMPIRE 39 

ens China, Japan, and incidentally the peace of a large 
part of the rest of the world. 

SIGNIFICANT SENTENCES 

When China is moved it will change the face of the 
globe. — Napoleon at St. Helena. 

It is a great step toward the Christianization of our 
planet if Christianity gain an entrance into China. 

— Neander. 

A high minister of state in China said to me a little 
over a year ago : " If we could only believe that foreigners 
were sincere in their friendship to us, we would in an 
instant open up the whole of our country and let traders 
as well as missionaries go everywhere. It is not that we 
are unwilling to advance ; we are afraid." The writer is 
confident that there are honorable, large-minded, generous 
men in all our Christian nations ready to drive off such 
fears, and to unitedly help in bringing about a new and 
happy era in China, one of prosperity, peace, and social 
regeneration. — Gilbert Keid, in The National Review. 

I love American institutions and believe the instruction 
of Chinese youth in America to be the best means of 
translating American ideas into China, thus bringing to- 
gether the oldest empire of the East and the greatest 
republic of the West. — Chektung Liang Cheng, Min- 
ister to U. S., at Amherst Commencement, 1903. 

Ancient Civilization 

When Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness, 
Chinese laws and literature and Chinese religious knowl- 
edge excelled that of Egypt. A hundred years before the 
north wind rippled over the harp of David, Wung Wang, 
an emperor of China, composed classics which are com- 



40 BEX CHRISTUS 

mitted to memory at this day by every advanced scholar 
of the empire. While Homer was composing and singing 
the Iliad, China's blind minstrels were celebrating her 
ancient heroes, whose tombs had already been with them 
through nearly thirteen centuries. Her literature was 
fully developed before England was invaded by the 
Xorman conquerors. The Chinese invented firearms as 
early as the reign of England's first Edward, and the art 
of printing five hundred years before Caxton was born. 
They made paper a.d. 150, and gunpowder about the 
commencement of the Christian era. A thousand years 
ago the forefathers of the present Chinese sold silks to the 
Romans, and dressed in these fabrics when the inhabit- 
ants of the British Isles wore coats of blue paint and 
fished in willow canoes. Her great wall was built two 
hundred and twenty years before Christ was born in 
Bethlehem, and contains material enough to build a wall 
five or six feet high around the globe. 

— Rev. J. T. Gracey, D.D. 

In all my life rolled together I had never seen so many 
water-craft as I saw at Shanghai. They anchor in such 
myriads that the beholder realizes for the first time what 
a farce it is to speak of the " forests of masts " at New 
York or Liverpool. They lie together in all but solid 
masses for miles and miles on each side of the harbor, and 
the channel between the lines is no more clear of them 
than Broadway or Charing Cross is free of vehicles at 
noonday. Thus we see how large a proportion of the 
population is nautical. — JuliajS" Ralph. 

Asia is now the field. The coming question will be 
Asiatic. It belongs to the next generation. I should 
advise my younger friends to bend their thoughts in that 
direction. It may come with the youngest and the oldest 
civilizations — the United States and China — face to face! 

• — Editor London Times. 



f A SELF-CENTBED EMPIRE 41 

t 

O, East is East and West is West, and never the twain 
shall meet, 
i Till earth and sky stand presently at God's great judg- 

I ment seat ; 

But there is neither East nor West, border nor breed nor 

birth. 
When two strong men stand face to face, though they 
come from the ends of the earth. — Kipling. 

Even the discovery of this continent and its islands, 
and the organization of society and government upon 
them, grand and important as these events have been, 
were but conditional, preliminary, and ancillary to the 
more sublime result now in the act of consummation — 
the reunion of the two civilizations which, parting on the 
plains of Asia four thousand years ago, and travelling 
ever afterward in opposite directions around the world, 
now meet again on the coasts and islands of the Pacific 
Ocean. Certainly no mere human event of equal dignity 
and importance has ever occurred upon the earth. 

— W^. H. Seward. 

THEMES FOR STUDY OR DISCUSSION 
I. China's Limitless Resources. 
II. Floods and Famines. 

III. Life on the Waterways and in House-Boats. 

IV. China at the Time of the Trojan War. 
V. Mongols and Manchus. 

YI. The Troublesome Tartars. (Read Coleridge's 

"KublaiKhan.") 
VII. Comparison between the Reigns of K'ang Hsi 
and his Contemporary, Louis XIV of France. 
VIII. The Great Wall and Other Public Works. 
IX. Reasons for Chinese National Conceit. 

X. China a Literary Nation. 
XI. The " Arrested Development " of China. 
XII. Home and Child Life in China. 



42 BEX CHBISTUS 



BOOKS OF REFERENCE 

For general reference on this and succeeding chapters : — . 

Beach's " Dawn on the Hills of T'ang." 

Beach's " Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions." 

Bliss's " Encyclopaedia of Missions." 

Dennis's " Christian Missions and Social Progress." 

Doolittle's " Social Life of the Chinese." 

Encyclopaedias, articles on " China." 

Martin's " Cycle of Cathay " and " Lore of Cathay." 

Smith's " Chinese Characteristics " and " Village Life in 

China." 
Williams's " The Middle Kingdom." 



For special reference on above themes : — 

Ball's « Things Chinese." IV, VI, VII, VIII. 

Bishop's " The Yangtze Valley and Beyond." I, II, III, 

XI, xn. 

Bryson's " Child Life in Chinese Homes." XH. 

Chang Chih-tung's " China's Only Hope." IX, X, XI. 

Colquhoun's " China in Transformation." I, V, XL 

Colquhoun's " Overland to China." V. 

Curzon's " Problems of the Far East." X. 

De Quincey's " Flight of a Tartar Tribe." VI. 

Dukes's " Everyday Life in China." XII. 

Giles's " Chinese Literature." IV, VII. 

Gilmour's " Among the Mongols." V, XII. 

Gilmour's " More About the Mongols." V. 

Gracey's " China in Outline." I, X. 

Guinness's " In the Far East." Ill, XII. 

Henry's " Ling-nam, or Interior Views of South China." 

HI, XII. 
Headland's " Chinese Boy and Girl." XII. 
Holcombe's " The Real Chinese Question." V, IX, X. 



A SELF-CENTBED EMPIRE 43 

Hue's *' Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China." I, II, 

UI, lY, Y, YI. 
Lewis's " Educational Conquest of the Far East." X. 
Moule's " Chinese Stories for Boys and Girls." XII. 
IVIoule's " ]N^ew China and Old." X, XI. 
ISTeyius's " China and the Chinese." I, 11, III, YIII, X. 
PhiUips's " Peeps into China." Ill, XII. 
Ross's " The Manchus." II, Y. 
Yule's " Cathay and the Way Thither." lY, V, YI. 



Articles on China in Periodicals: — 

Century, Yol. 23, " The Great Wall of China." YIII. 
Harper's, Yol. 91, " House-Boating in China." III. 
Lippincott's, Yol. 19, " The Tartar and His Home." YI. 
Popular Science Monthly, Yol. 21, " The Chinese : Their 
Manners and Customs." XII. 



CHAPTER II 
The Religions of China 

Confucianism 

There is no equivalent in the Chinese lan- 
guage for the word " religion," its place being 
taken by a term which signifies instruction. It 
is for this reason peculiarly important, in speak- 
ing of the religions of China, to make clear the 
relation of Confucius to the people among whom 
he lived and died, and who worship his memor}^ 
As his personality is implicated with his system, 
it is desirable to say a few words of the external 
facts of his life. He was born, 551 B.C., in what 
is now called the county of Ch'u Fu, in the 
prefecture of Yen Chou, in the province of 
Shantung. His family name was K'ung, and 
his designation Chung Ni, but he was called by 
his disciples " The Master K'ung" (K'ung Fu- 
tzu), a title which, being Latinized by the Jesuit 
missionaries, has passed into the languages of 
Europe. 

His parents, although poor, were respectable. 

He showed a taste for books, and became at the 

age of twenty -two a teacher, drawing about him 

many admiring pupils. He was filled with en- 

44 



THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 45 

thusiasm by the study of the ancients, and 
mourning over the degeneracy of his own times 
endeavored to set them right by setting an ex- 
ample of good government, as well as by oral 
instruction to his disciples. At the age of 
fifty-five he was made a high officer in his native 
state and the improvement in public morals was 
soon manifest. 

But Confucius was not a courtier, he was a 
reformer; and then, as now, reform was not 
popular. The prince of the state of Lu was 
corrupted by the present from a rival prince of 
a band of beautiful dancing girls, and abandoned 
the principles with which he had been inspired 
by the sage. Disappointed and disgusted, Con- 
fucius retired to private life, spending the re- 
mainder of his days in the instruction of youth 
and in the collection of the wisdom of the past. 
His disciples are said to have numbered three 
thousand, among whom five hundred became 
distinguished, and seventy-two of them are en- 
rolled as Sages of the Empire. His own esti- 
mate of himself is of moment in an examination 
of his influence. He modestly said : " The 
sage and the man of perfect virtue — how dare 
I rank myself with them? It may simply be 
said of me that I strive to become such without 
satiety, and to teach others without weariness. 
In letters, I am perhaps equal to other men; 
but the character of the Superior Man, carrying 
out in his conduct what he professes, is what 



46 BEX CHRISTUS 

1 have not attained to. The leaving virtue 
without proper cultivation ; the not thoroughly 
discussing what is learned; not being able to 
move toward righteousness of which knowledge 
is gained ; and not being able to change what is 
not good, — these are the things which occasion 
me solicitude. I am not one who was born in 
possession of knowledge ; I am one who is fond 
of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it. A trans- 
mitter, and not a maker, believing in and loving 
the ancients." 

Teachings of Confucius. — The first of the 
" Four Books " which every Chinese lad studies 
as soon as he is able to do so after entering 
school, is called in English the " Analects," and 
like Xenophon's " Memorabilia of Socrates," 
consists largely of reminiscences gathered by 
his disciples. Among these are to be found 
the extracts just cited, and many others which 
throw much light on the views of the master. 
lie refused to discuss the future, dismissing the 
question with the aphorism : " Not knowing 
life, how can we know death?" — a sentence 
which has had a fateful influence over innu- 
merable millions of immortals checked in their 
search for truth. 

The saying most quoted in Christian lands 
is the Golden Rule in a negative form: "Do 
not do unto others as you would not that others 
should do unto you," a dictum which may be 
regarded as the high-water mark of Confucian 



THE BELIGIONS OF CHINA 47 

morality, as well as of all non-Christian teach- 
ings. In another paragraph the positive side 
of the same rule is virtually implied : " When 
one cultivates to the utmost the principles of 
his nature, and exercises them on the principle 
of reciprocity, he is not far from the path." In 
the same connection he disclaims having at- 
tained unto serving his father as he would have 
his son serve him, to serving his prince as he 
would require his minister to serve him, to serve 
his elder brother as he would require a younger 
brother to serve him, and to behave to a friend 
as he would require him to behave to himself. 
These words suggest the summary of duties 
which constitute the essence of Confucianism in 
its explanation of the social system, the " Five 
Relations " of prince and minister ; father and 
son ; husband and wife ; of brother to brother ; 
and of friend to friend. To a Chinese these 
categories exhaust the universe. The Five 
Constant Virtues are Benevolence, Righteous- 
ness, Propriety, Knowledge, and Faith. The 
standard of the first is so high that few of the 
ancient worthies were held to have attained to 
it; and, as we have just seen, Confucius dis- 
claimed for himself that merit. Righteousness 
is what ougJit to be done, as interpreted by con- 
science. Propriety is an unavoidably infelici- 
tous rendering of a term which denotes the 
outward manifestation of an inner feeling. 
Knowledge is a comprehensive word, embracing 



48 BEX CHBISTUS 

everything from mere cognition up to wisdom. 
It was a pithy saying of Confucius : " To know 
what we know, and what we do not know, is 
knowledge." Faith, or sincerity, is the last of 
the five ; and as we shall have occasion to see, 
it is in fact the one of which least is seen and 
experienced in Chinese, and among thorough- 
going Confucianists. It has been said that 
there are six essential elements of Confucianism, 
five of which, so far as we know, differentiate it 
from any other system of non-Christian thought. 
Foundation Principles. — Of these, the first is 
its doctrine of the direct responsibility of the 
sovereign to Heaven, Shang Ti, or God. This, 
which is abundantly illustrated in the classical 
writings, is as really a factor of the government 
of to-day as it was of that of antiquity. From 
this source originates the whole complex theory 
of responsibility, which plays so large a part in 
the conduct of all Chinese affairs, both private 
and public. The worship of Heaven is the pre- 
rogative of the emperor alone, and has been 
well compared by Dr. Martin, so far as its in- 
fluence on the public mind is concerned, to a 
ray of the sun falling upon an iceberg. In a 
humble and feeble manner the people imitate 
this worship by the presentation of offerings on 
the first and fifteenth of the moon to " Old 
Father Heaven," an impersonal personality often 
associated with " Old Mother Earth " ; or, more 
briefly, they worship "Heaven and Earth." 



THE BELIGIONS OF CHINA 49 

A second element of Confucian teaching is the 
singular proposition that the people are of more 
importance than the sovereign. The latter, as 
we have previously seen, rules by "Heaven's 
Decree," and when it has been lost, he is de facto 
no longer the rightful ruler. There is in China 
a well-recognized " right of rebellion," and ab- 
solute monarchy is tempered with practical de- 
mocracy in a manner elsewhere unexampled, — a 
fact without a knowledge of which contempo- 
raneous Chinese history cannot be understood. 

A third element is that delimitation of the 
social relations just mentioned, which, while 
appearing to the Chinese all comprehensive, in 
reality takes no account of such classes as em- 
ployer and employee, nor of such entities as 
capital and labor. 

A fourth element is the prominence of the 
virtues just specified, which form a standard 
never lost sight of, but constantly brought be- 
fore the eyes of all Chinese. The civil service 
examinations, as we have seen, a slow growth 
of many ages, have unified the mind of the 
Chinese as the mind of no other people was ever 
unified, unless the Jews be an exception ; and 
the Jews, unlike Confucianists, are divided into 
old and new schools. In China there is no in- 
tellectual revolt against any part of the teach- 
ings of Confucianism. China and Confucianism 
are synonymous terms. By means of absolutely 
uniform classical text-books, and by written 



50 BEX CHBISTUS 

mottoes pasted on all the door-posts of the em- 
pire and renewed every New Year, Confucian 
maxims are kept before the eyes and in the 
minds of the people. It is an integral part of 
the theory that only the wise and the able should 
rule. The object of the elaborate civil service 
examinations is to determine who the wise and 
able are. 

The fifth element is the presentation of an 
ideal or Princely Man as a model on which 
every Confucianist should form his character. 
The influence of this ideal upon the unnum- 
bered millions of Chinese Confucianists must 
have been measureless. The fact that the 
master disclaimed having attained to his own 
ideal, places before his followers the ambition to 
live up to the high level which Confucius had 
not reached. Self-examination is inculcated by 
the precepts and by the example of the greatest 
rulers and wise men of antiquity. No nation, 
no race, was ever better outfitted with admi- 
rable moral precepts than the Chinese. 

The remaining of the six elements is filial 
piety. This includes not only the meaning 
naturally suggested to Orientals by the phrase, 
but a great deal more, and in especial the wor- 
ship of ancestors, which is the real religion of 
the Chinese people. It is perhaps the most 
potent among several causes which have perpet- 
uated the Chinese race as a unit through all 
the millenniums of its national history. It is 



THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 51 

itself an illustration of the saying of one of the 
greatest emperors of the T'ang dynasty, more 
than one thousand years ago, that Confucian- 
ism is adapted to the Chinese people as water 
to the fish. 

Weak Spots in Confucianism. — Such, in the 
merest outline, is the remarkable system of 
social ethics which is called Confucianism. If 
human nature were in an ideal condition, Con- 
fucianism would be adapted to that ideal, and, 
as Dr. Legge remarked, a world ordered by it 
would be a beautiful world, but it would still 
be deficient in the chief of all the " Relations," 
for it has within it no explanation of that which 
is highest, deepest, and most essential in man. 
Its view of God is defective, its view of man 
inadequate, and it has no explanation of the 
relation between the two. God and Heaven 
are synonymous. Heaven and Earth constitute 
a dualism, " the conjunction of their vital es- 
sences brings forth a third, the incandescent 
part of which is called a spirit. Heaven unites 
its essences with those of the sun, moon, and 
stars, and spirits of Heaven result. In a similar 
way the spirits of mountains, rivers, and seas 
are produced. When any of these spirits in 
some special way benefit creation, the national 
government canonizes them, and they take their 
place by the side of Heaven." The preceding 
sentences are taken from the elaborate essay 
presented at the Parliament of Religions by 



52 BEX CBRISTUS 

Mr. P'eng Kuang Yu, and may therefore be 
regarded as authoritative. They exhibit the 
nature worship which, in combination with hero 
worship, and the worship of ancestors, charac- 
terizes the Confucian cult. 

The objects of the state worship are of the 
most miscellaneous and incongruous description, 
including the heavens, the sky, the earth, the 
temples containing the tablets of the deceased 
monarchs of the dynasty, the gods of the land 
and the grain, the sun, the moon, the spirits of 
emperors or kings of previous dynasties, Con- 
fucius, the ancient patrons of agriculture and 
silk, the gods of heaven, earth, and the cyclic 
year. There is also a lower grade of sacrifices 
to the spirits of those who in life were distin- 
guistied in different ways, as generals, statesmen, 
philanthropists, etc. Temples of this sort are 
constantly recommended to the emperor for his 
approval, and are authorized by imperial decrees, 
one of the most recent being to the spirit of the 
late Li Hung Chang. There are also temples 
to and worship of clouds, rain, wind, thunder, 
the five great mountains, the four seas and four 
rivers, famous hills, great watercourses, flags, 
gods of cannon, gates, the queen goddess of 
earth, the north pole, and many other things. 
Thus, as Dr. Williams, from whom the above 
summary is quoted, remarks, the ancient sim- 
plicity of the state religion has been so far cor- 
rupted as to combine in one ritual, gods, ghosts, 



THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 53 

flags, and cannon. It has become at once es- 
sentially polytheistic and pantheistic. 

Universality of Temples. — Idolatry is directly 
connected with the underlying presuppositions 
of the Confucian faith, and the building of tem- 
ples began shortly after the classical period, its 
roots being found in the classics. The present 
universality of temples all over China does not, 
however, reach back beyond the T'ang dynasty. 
The number of such is past computation, espe- 
cially to heroes like the present god of war, who 
is theoretically worshipped in every city and ham- 
let of the empire, although this is not always the 
case. The waste of wealth in structures of this 
description, often heavily endowed and accom- 
panied with an expensive service, is incomput- 
able. One of the prerogatives of the emperor is 
the canonization of the spirits of the dead, who 
are appointed to certain positions in the Pan- 
theon and from time to time promoted, just as 
living civil and military officers are given official 
rank, the fact being in each case notified in the 
Peking Gazette. Every magistrate is officially 
required to perform a great variety of idolatrous 
ceremonies at the temples, and for this reason 
alone no Christian can hold office in China. 
The Mohammedans, many of whom hold public 
positions, have compromised the matter with 
their somewhat pliable consciences, and if asked 
how they can consent to do so, will not improb- 
ably reply that although obliged externally to 



54 BEX CHRISTUS 

conform, they do not "worship in their hearts," 
in which respect they probably do not materially 
differ from the average Confucianists. 

There are in the empire 1560 temples dedi- 
cated to Confucius, where are annually offered 
several tens of thousands of animals, as well as 
innumerable pieces of silk. Officials worship 
not only at the required temples, but, in times of 
special emergency, wherever else and whatever 
else may chance to commend itself to tliem as 
beneficial to their public or private interests. 
Thus during the great floods at Tientsin during 
the early seventies, Li Hung Chang prostrated 
himself before a snake which was alleged to be 
a " Tai Wang," or god of the waters. Memori- 
als frequently appear in the Peking Gazette, 
recommending to the emperor's favorable con- 
sideration the god of some river which, during 
the floods, did not burst its banks, and in 
response it is ordered that a certain amount of 
expensive Thibetan incense should be burned 
before its shrine in recognition of its merit. 

Comparison between Confucianism and Chris- 
tianity. — Dr. Ernst Faber, who has bestowed 
more labor on the thorough examination of the 
Chinese classical writings than any Chinese 
scholar since Dr. Legge, compiled an instructive 
list of the points in which Confucianism and 
Christianity resemble one another. Among them 
are the acknowledgment of a superintending 
Divine Providence, which punishes the evil and 



THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 65 

rewards the good ; the belief in an invisible 
world above and around this material life ; a 
moral law positively set forth as equally binding 
on man and spirits ; prayer believed to be heard 
and answered by the spiritual powers ; sacrifices 
regarded as necessary to come into closer contact 
with the spiritual world. ("Even its deeper 
meanings of self-sacrifice and of a vicarious sac- 
rifice are touched upon, which are two important 
steps toward an understanding of the sacrificial 
death of Christ.") Miracles are believed in as 
the natural efficacy of spirits. Moral duty is 
taught in the five relations already mentioned. 
Cultivation of the personal moral character is 
regarded as the basis for successfully carrying 
out the social duties, and it is insisted that this 
self-control should not be abandoned in private 
when no mortal being is near to observe it. 
Virtue is valued above riches and honor. In 
case of failure in political and social life, moral 
self -culture is to be even more carefully attended 
to than before. ("This is the great moral vic- 
tory which Confucius gained, and the same may 
be said of his distinguished followers, the great- 
est among whom are Mencius and Chu Fu-tze. 
None of these pillars of Confucianism turned to 
money-making, or sought vain glory in the ser- 
vice of the state by sacrificing their principles to 
gain official employment, or by a promise to keep 
their conviction secret in their bosoms. They 
gained greater ultimate success by their failure 



56 BEX CHBISTUS 

in life.") Sincerity and truth are shown to be 
the only basis for self-culture and the reform of 
the world. ("This gives to self-culture a high 
moral tone. It is not merely fine manners and 
good works, but a normal state of the intentions 
of the mind, combined with undefiled feelings 
and emotions of the heart.") How imperfectly 
this ideal is realized will elsewhere appear. The 
Golden Rule is proclaimed as the principle of 
moral conduct among our fellow-men. Every 
ruler should carry out a benevolent government 
for the benefit of the people. Every Chinese 
ofiicial, from the emperor down, is in theory 
a "Father and Mother" to the people. It is a 
great advantage to have this high ideal explic- 
itly stated. 

On the other hand there is a wide range of 
religious ideas w^hich in Confucianism find but 
dim expression, or no expression at all. The 
Confucian "Supreme Ruler" is remote, and out 
of all connection with mankind. He is not a 
Father, and as we have seen, his subjects are 
not allowed to worship him. Prayer and its 
ethical value find no place in the system of Con- 
fucius. So far as there is any such thing in 
practice, it is a ceremony by which evils are 
avoided and blessings secured. Some men are 
said to be born with complete krowledge and 
are called sages ; some can acquire thii! knowl- 
edge and are called worthies, wMie others must 
forever remain in ignorance and practical de- 



THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 57 

spair, and of this strange circumstance there is 
no explanation, and for it no remedy. 

There is no comprehension of sin as a fact, 
nor is any remedy for its evils suggested. On 
the contrary the advice of the master was to 
" Worship the gods, but to keep at a distance 
from them," but he expressly says that he who 
sins against Heaven has no one to whom to 
pray. Polytheism, as we have just seen, is an 
inevitable accompaniment of the Confucian cult, 
and a tangled mass of superstitions based upon 
the "Book of Changes" has always been believed 
in. The influence of example is inordinately 
exaggerated, while the actual history of China 
under its many great rulers remains unexplained. 
Filial piety is exaggerated into a virtual if not 
a conscious, deification of parents. The rewards 
and punishments of Confucius are confined to 
this world ; immortality is either non-existent or 
at best uncertain. Though confidence is insisted 
upon, its presupposition, truthfulness in speak- 
ing, is never practically urged, but rather the 
reverse. 

The practical effects of this system of thought 
upon the Chinese people are of a mixed character. 
Many of them have been in the highest degree 
conservative, while others have tended toward 
social disintegration which has yet in other v/ays 
been prevented. Without undertaking in any 
way to balance the account, let us glance for 
a. moment at the disabilities under which the 



58 BEX CRBISTUS 

women of China have for centuries labored. 
Confucianism presupposes and tolerates polyg- 
amy, with its illimitable train of inevitable evils. 
The infanticide of female infants follows natu- 
rally from the inferior position of woman, an 
inferiority, be it observed, which is itself a part 
of the system. Although the latter does not 
interdict the education of woman, it is practi- 
cally unknown. She is placed in a position, the 
evils of which are not infrequently intolerable, 
but from which escape is impossible. The 
natural and the constant result is suicide, 
against which Confucianism has no remon- 
strance, and to prevent which it has no remedy. 
Its doctrine of the filial duty of leaving de- 
scendants, that the graves of the family may be 
properly tended, leads to the propagation of 
innumerable human beings who should never 
have been born, because under existing condi- 
tions there is no means by which they can be 
supported. This is of itself sufficient to account 
for the universal poverty everywhere witnessed 
in this empire, despite its material resources 
and the unmatched industry of the people. 

There can be no doubt that Confucianism has 
exerted a restraining force not elsewhere equalled 
in human history. It has kept in social order 
the most numerous race for the longest period 
ever known. To external influences it owes 
absolutely nothing. It is based upon tradition, 
iand its golden age is in a remote and semi-mythi- 



THE EELIGIONS OF CHINA 59 

cal past. Theoretically, it is now all that it 
ever was, but in reality it is destitute of any 
adaptive or developing force and is unable to 
effect anything further for China. That the 
present exaggerated reverence for Confucius will 
be materially modified is certain. The " Book of 
Changes," upon which he laid so much stress and 
which he regarded with so much awe, on the 
advent of real science will crumble into ruins. 
For ages Japan was bound by Confucian fetters, 
but her adoption of western civilization has 
almost entirely emancipated her. Sooner or 
later, although more slowly, like causes must in 
China produce like results. 

Taoism 

One of the most comprehensive characters in 
the Chinese language is tao, which means road 
or path, the road or path, to speak, words, reason, 
having some analogy to the logos of the Greeks. 
The name Tao Chiao, or Doctrine of Rationalism, 
is applied to the teachings of a sect which claims 
as its founder Lao-tze, one of China's most 
famous teachers, supposed to have been born 
604 B.C., but of whom little which is authentic 
is known. He was the great prophet of his age, 
and held some government appointment, like 
Keeper of the Archives, under the Chou dynasty, 
the ruin of which he foresaw, and accordingly 
resigned his office, going into retirement to cul- 
tivate tao and virtue. There is a tradition that 



60 REX CHBISTUS 

at the pass leading out of the empire, the gov- 
ernor begged him to leave behind him some 
guide for erring humanity, and that he there- 
upon produced what is now known as the 
" Canon of Reason and Virtue," — a work con- 
taining only 5320 characters in eighty-one short 
chapters. This remarkable production has been 
studied by all the scholars of China, and in 
every age has been commented on. It has been 
said of it that probably no widely spread religion 
was ever founded upon so small a base. The 
native commentators observe that it is not easy 
clearly to explain the more profound passages — 
all that can be done is to give the general sense. 
The early Jesuit missionaries found in its mys- 
tical utterances a revelation of the Christian 
Trinity, and the sacred name of Jehovah. A 
brief extract from one of the numerous transla- 
tions may give an inadequate notion of its in- 
herent abstruseness : " Tao is impalpable ; you 
look at it, and you cannot see it ; you listen to 
it, and you cannot hear it. You try to touch 
it, and you cannot reach it. You use it, and you 
cannot exhaust it. It is not to be expressed in 
words. It is still and void ; it stands alone and 
changes not; it circulates everywhere and it 
is endangered. It is ever inactive, and yet 
leaves nothing undone. From it phenomena 
appear, through it they change, in it they dis- 
appear. Formless, it is the cause of form. 
Nameless, it is the origin of Heaven and Earth. 



THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 61 

With a name it is the mother of all things. It 
is the ethical nature of the good man and the 
principles of his action." 

It is remarkable that this profound book 
teaches men to return good for evil and to look 
forward to a higher life. There is a passage 
(considered to be spurious) in the earliest 
Chinese historian previously mentioned, relating 
an interview between Lao-tze, at the age of 
eighty-seven, and Confucius, who was more than 
fifty years younger, in which the latter was 
lectured, and informed that he must put away 
his proud air and many desires, his insinuating 
habit and wild will; and that the reason why 
for twenty years he had not been able to attain 
unto tao^ was because he was incapable of giv- 
ing it an asylum in his heart I 

At the head of the Taoist Pantheon there is 
a trinity, in imitation of that of the Buddhists. 
A vast army of "superior and inferior divini- 
ties — gods, genii, heroes, good men, and virtu- 
ous women, the spirits of stars and the visible 
manifestations of nature and the elements, such 
as thunder and lightning, as well as dragons 
— have all been classed together as objects of 
worship, while the god of literature, and gods 
and goddesses of disease, all receive their share 
of attention." The dragon is not regarded by 
the Chinese as a fabulous animal, but as a real 
existence and is worshipped as such. He reigns 
over all seas, lakes, and rivers. Celestial phe- 



62 REX CHRISTUS 

nomena are ascribed to his agency. The exalted 
notions of the Chinese in regard to the dragon 
have made this a favorite word to symbolize 
the d3masty, and the supremacy of the Chinese 
emperor, who is supposed to be seated on the 
Dragon Throne, while the dragon himself is 
depicted on the national flag and on postage 
stamps. Dr. Faber considers Confucianism as 
an effort to check despotism by an appeal to the 
example of supposed ancient rulers, fixing eti- 
quette, even to details, while Taoism is an 
attempt to accomplish the same end by an appeal 
to the laws of nature. It is essentially material- 
istic. Even the soul is considered as a material 
substance, although more refined than the body, 
and liable to dissolution, but by discipline it 
may be trained to survive. The body, on the 
other hand, may attain to " a deathless perpetual 
life," training for which is assiduously pursued 
by multitudes who thirst for an immortality 
" which was not the heritage of the many, but 
might become the prize of the few." 

Modern Taoism. — The Taoism of the present 
day has nothing to do either with the Canon of 
Reason and Virtue — of which its priests, for 
the most part, cannot even read a word — or 
with its reputed master, Lao-tze. With every 
age the character of Taoism has changed. The 
philosophy of its founder is now only an anti- 
quarian curiosity. Modern Taoism is of such a 
motley character as almost to defy any attempt 



THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 63 

to educe a well-ordered system from its chaos. 
From profound speculation it has passed' into 
the pursuit of the elixir of immortality, the con- 
quest of the passions, the search for the philoso- 
pher's stone, the observance of fasts, the use of 
rituals and charms, the indefinite multiplication 
of objects of worship, and especially a system of 
demon exercises. It has been largely mixed 
with Buddhist elements and ideas, though in 
former ages these religions were deadly rivals. 
The official head of the sect, called by foreigners 
the Taoist Pope, lives on the Dragon and Tiger 
mountain in Kiangsi, where he keeps a great 
establishment, and is at times supposed to be 
consulted by the emperor himself. It is popu- 
larly believed that when it is desired to have a 
conference of this sort with this " Preceptor of 
Heaven," word is sent to a representative of the 
Pope living in Peking, who writes on a slip of 
paper a mysterious message. This is burned, 
whereupon the Preceptor of Heaven makes a 
journey to Peking, whither he travels like other 
grandees. But his return is by riding on the 
clouds and enveloped in mist, which has given 
rise to a proverb, — "Like the shoes of the 
Heavenly Preceptor, coming in the clouds and 
disappearing in the mist," — employed of what 
is vague and supernatural. 

In this connection it is important to take note 
of the fact that the Chinese are victims to in- 
numerable superstitions which may at any 



64 REX CHRISTUS 

moment become magazines of dynamite, liable 
to sudden ignition with terrible effects. Total 
ignorance of the laws of nature and an unlimited 
faith in genii, fairies, magic pills, powders and 
charms, make a hotbed in which noxious results 
are rapidly and irresistibly brought to fruition. 
The Chinese queue, originally imposed by the 
dominant Manchus as a symbol of subjection, 
has become the most characteristic and most 
cherished mark of the national costume. To 
cut off the queue of another is a serious offence. 
During the year 1876, there prevailed over a 
large part of China a strange mania both of queue- 
cutting and of the fear of it. Men would awake 
to find their queues gone when no one had been 
in the room, and no human agency could have 
been employed. In other cases specific individ- 
uals were detected, or alleged to be detected, in 
the very act, and horrible punishments were meted 
out. Officials high and low issued proclama- 
tions, some of them offering high rewards for 
the detection of offenders, and others recom- 
mending the use of certain charms. Talismanic 
characters were sold by thousands, which, being 
braided into the hair, would render knives or 
scissors innocuous. For months this excite- 
ment continued to prevail, and at length died 
away as inexplicably as it came. 

Root of the Boxer Madness. — In the year 
1897 a similar excitement spread through many 
provinces over the reported abduction of chil- 



THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 65 

dren. It was generally believed that kidnappers 
could exert a potent spell over their victims, 
who at once followed them and were never seen 
again. What basis of fact lurked at the bottom 
of these tales it was impossible to decide, but it 
is certain that for many weeks it was highly 
dangerous for any one to travel, and many per- 
sons were captured by rustics and clubbed to 
death with hoes, or tied up and sent to yamen^ 
where, failing to prove their identity and estab- 
lish their innocence, they were beaten and locked 
up, or in some extreme cases promptly tortured 
to death to make them confess. On this occa- 
sion the lives of many foreigners were endan- 
gered and native Christians had many narrow 
escapes. It is the Taoist teachings which have 
made these epidemics of madness possible. It 
is this which explains the persistence of the 
often officially repeated libels against foreigners 
of scooping out eyes, of extracting hearts, and 
the like, with a view to " making silver," — an art 
which it is believed they must possess, for other- 
wise whence have they so much money ? The 
subsumptions of the Taoists lie at the root of 
the whole Boxer madness, which may, there- 
fore, justly be charged to that origin, although 
there is no valid evidence that either they or 
the Buddhists had any important part in the 
movement. As long as the Chinese are pro- 
foundly ignorant of the uniformity of the mode 
in which the powers of nature act, having lost 

F 



66 BEX CHBISTUS 

sight (if they ever had it) of the intuition of 
cause and effect, so long will they believe scat- 
tered black beans may speedily develop into 
an army ; that paper images flung to the winds 
or burned will turn into real warriors ; that by 
incantations swords may be rendered irresisti- 
ble, that by the overshadowing influences of the 
spirits of dead men, living men ma,y be made 
impervious to Mauser bullets, and to all forms 
of shells projected from rifled cannon; that 
young girls can ride on a cloud, and at will 
bring down fire from heaven which will destroy 
steel men-of-war, with no harm or even risk to 
those wielding these tremendous powers. 

From this point of view the Taoist faith is one 
of the most deadly foes to the internal peace of 
China, and to the existence of normal relations 
between the Chinese people and those not of 
their race who are dwellers within the Four 
Seas, and are therefore, according to classical 
authority, their brethren. It is altogether pos- 
sible that the Chinese might in a general way 
accept the dicta of modern science, without at 
all abating their faith in the wild infra-natural 
fables of the Taoists, or escaping from the bond- 
age of the crushing burdens thus imposed, under 
which the Chinese have been unconsciously op- 
pressed for two millenniums. Complete eman- 
cipation will be attained by the universal spread 
of the principles of Christianity, the only source 
from which it could proceed. 



THE BELIGIONS OF CHINA 67 

Chinese Buddhism 

This religion was introduced into China by 
the Emperor Ming Ti in the year 66 a.d., who, 
in consequence of a dream (probably a myth of 
a later origin) sent to India to inquire into its 
character and to secure books and teachers, for 
it is supposed to have been known in India some 
centuries previous. The essential doctrines of 
Buddhism are the vanity of all material things, 
the supreme importance of charity, and the cer- 
tainty of rewards and punishments by means of 
the transmigration of souls. Its adaptation to 
Chinese needs arose from its supplying the 
vacancy due to the cold and heartless morality 
of Confucianism and the gross materialism of 
Taoism. Its success was immediate and remark- 
able. During the period of the Three Kingdoms, 
and down to the end of the Sui dynasty, Bud- 
dhism made rapid strides. " The government 
invited Buddhist missionaries from India to 
teach Buddhism, to translate their sacred books, 
to build beautiful temples, to cast immense idols, 
and to paint lovely pictures of Buddha on the 
doors of the homes of the people. The em- 
perors of these dynasties visited the temples and 
preached the law themselves, sending to India 
for more sacred books, so that in the Sui dynasty 
the Buddhist books were from ten to a hun- 
dred times more numerous than the Confucian 
books." 



68 BEX CHBISTUS 

During the T'ang dynasty Buddhism was 
patronized by all the emperors but two. One, 
however, who was fond of Taoism, drove out 
all the Buddhists from their monasteries, and 
ordered them to be killed, refilling the monaster- 
ies with Taoist monks. The succeeding emperor 
again expelled twelve thousand Buddhist monks 
and nuns, who had probably crept back on the 
death of their persecutor. The Empress Wu 
allowed the Buddhists to teach that she was an 
incarnation of one of the Buddhas, and immense 
idols were set up throughout the empire to rep- 
resent her. (It is a curious circumstance that 
among her dependents in the imperial court, the 
present empress dowager is said to be spoken 
of as the " Old Buddha.") Buddhist monks are 
often made mandarins. In the five minor dynas- 
ties following there was a certain reaction, for 
one of the emperors melted down the brass 
images to make cash. In the Sung dynasty the 
emperors sent out clever speakers to point out 
the errors of Buddhism, forbade the building of 
any more temples, and even the recital of Bud- 
dhist prayers. But the religion made rapid 
progress in Mongolia, upon which it has a firm 
grasp. During the Mongol dynasty there was 
another reaction, and magnificent temples were 
erected. The founder of the Mings, as already 
mentioned, had once been a Buddhist priest, and 
in that period the temples were again built and 
repaired. 



THE BELIGIONS OF CHINA 69 

The preceding paragraphs are condensed from 
a summary of a Chinese history translated by 
Dr. Richard, and they exhibit in a clear light 
the numerous metempsychoses through which 
this alien faith has been obliged to pass in the 
land of its adoption. At first it was a lusty 
young giant, full of life and vigor, quite pre- 
pared to endure the fiery baptism of persecu- 
tion which was inevitable, but, like the human 
soul itself, it has gone through great trans- 
formations, modifying the other religions of the 
land, and being in turn to some extent influ- 
enced by them. 

Chinese Buddhism was of the northern type, 
which in its sacred books uses the Sanscrit lan- 
guage, as the southern type employs the Pali. 
The books as rendered into Chinese are trans- 
literations (not translations) of the original, 
and are therefore almost wholly unintelligible 
to those who learn to repeat them, and alto- 
gether so to those who hear them. It is the use 
of this ritual in the services performed in honor 
of the dead which gives both the Buddhist and 
the Taoist priesthood their firm hold upon the 
mass of the Chinese people, who do not know 
and who cannot conceive of any other way of 
suitably completing funeral ceremonies, than to 
have a full complement of representatives of 
each religion to chant their liturgies, while a 
Confucian scholar is invited to make a dot on 
the tablet to the spirit of the dead, which alters 



70 BEX CHEISTUS 

the character for " King " into that meaning 
"Lord," a modern custom which seems to be 
alike inexplicable and indispensable. 

The Dominant Religion. — Notwithstanding 
the j)Owerful patronage of the emperors, as 
already mentioned, the teachings of Confucius 
and Mencius are too well understood and too 
deeply planted in the popular heart to be up- 
rooted or overridden. The literati have always 
refused to be driven from their positions by 
imperial orders, although, like others, they sum- 
mon the priests in times of emergency. These 
contradictory tendencies are well illustrated in 
the third emperor of the present dynasty, who 
promulgated an expansion of the Sixteen Moral 
Precepts of his father, the great K'ang Hsi. 
Among them is one directed against Taoist and 
Buddhist priests, whose idle mummeries and dis- 
solute lives are unsparingly condemned, exhibit- 
ing a clear perception of the real folly, vice, 
and peril of Buddhism in all its aspects. Yet 
this emperor was himself a daily w^orshipper of 
Buddhist idols served by the lamas. 

That renunciation of their families, which is 
a condition of entrance into the ranks of the 
Buddhist priesthood, is so totally opposed to 
the tenets and the practices of Confucianism, 
that one might have expected it to be a com- 
plete bar to the entrance of Buddhism into 
China. But the recruits are taken from the 
poorest families, who are unable themselves to 



THE BELIGIONS OF CHINA 71 

support their children, and are glad to see them 
provided for on any terms. In some cases chil- 
dren are purchased. Sometimes, also, adults 
who are weary of the " dusty earth " seek a 
refuge from its ills within the walls of the 
monastery. Many of these temples are situated 
in the most eligible and commanding positions, 
where the delights of the finest scenery which 
China can boast may gratify the recluses who 
have "seen the emptiness of the world." " Se- 
questered valleys enclosed by mountain peaks, 
and elevated far above the world which they 
profess to despise, are favorite seats for the 
communities of Buddhism. But it is no yearn- 
ing after God that leads them to court retire- 
ment ; nor is it the adoration of nature's Author 
that prompts them to place their shrines in the 
midst of his sublimest works. To them the uni- 
verse is a vacuum, and emptiness the highest 
object of contemplation. They are a strange 
paradox, — religious atheists ! Acknowledging 
no First Cause or Conscious Ruling Power, they 
hold that the human soul revolves perpetually 
in the urn of fate, liable to endless ills, and 
enjoying no real good. As it cannot cease to 
be, its only resource against this state of in- 
terminable misery is the extinction of con- 
sciousness, a remedy which lies within itself, 
and which they endeavor to attain by ascetic 
exercises I " 

Dr. Martin, from whose "Lore of Cathay" the 



72 BEX CHBISTUS 

preceding paragraphs are cited, discriminates 
between the religions of China as ethical (Con- 
fucianism), physical (Taoism), and metaphysical 
(Buddhism). The mutual interaction of these 
upon one another has been alluded to, and a 
discussion of this might of itself fill an ex- 
tended essay, which would be a study in the 
art of uniting what Sir William Hamilton styled 
"incompossibilities." Buddhism has adopted 
the deities and spirits of other religions. Tao- 
ism, as we have seen, has imitated the trinity 
of the Buddhists. Confucianism despises, re- 
jects, and adopts them both ! Every Chinese is 
a Confucianist, but most of them are likewise 
Buddhists and Taoists as well. It is one of the 
most common aphorisms that the "three religions 
are after all one." 

Temples to the Three Religions. — There are 
in China many temples dedicated to the Three 
Religions in which there are huge images of Con- 
fucius, Lao-tze, and Buddha, seated together, 
but the place of honor (although not invariably) 
is given to the Indian divinity. " This arrange- 
ment, however, gives great o:ffence to some of 
the more zealous disciples of Confucius ; and a 
few years ago a memorial was presented to the 
emperor, praying him to demolish the Temple 
of the Three Religions which stood near the 
tomb of their great teacher, who has ' no equal 
but Heaven.' " 

There is nothing revolting or licentious in 



THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 73 

Buddhism, or indeed in any form of worship in 
China, — a fact in itself as remarkable as is the 
entire freedom of the Chinese classics from 
everything, from this point of view, objection- 
able. Buddhism has taught the Chinese a cer- 
tain amount of compassion for animal life. 
'' The sparing of life has become a recognized 
virtue, and Confucianists and Taoists have been 
stirred up by Buddhism to exhibit more benevo- 
lent feeling toward the irrational creation than 
they would have shown without it." From the 
view-point of political economy, however, not 
to speak of Christianity, it seems a somewhat 
misdirected effort to spend money to buy fish 
out of a net and throw them back into a river, 
when there are upon the bank starving men, 
women, and children for whom nothing whatever 
is attempted. Yet from Chinese premises this is 
not at all an absurd proceeding. The fish once 
back in their element are on a self-supporting 
basis, and that is a thing done^ whereas to dole 
out money to refugees is simply to invite further 
demands indefinitely, with no one to predict 
what other disagreeable consequences. There- 
fore, the man of benevolent instincts not im- 
probably patronizes the fish, and allows the 
human beings to worry on as they may. 

The most popular divinity in China is proba- 
bly the " goddess of mercy, of whom it is said 
that she declined to enter the bliss of Nirvana, 
and preferred to hover on the confines of this 



74 REX CHBISTU8 

world of suffering, in order that she might hear 
the prayers of men, and bring succour to their 
afflictions. What wonder that this attribute of 
divine compassion should win all hearts ? " It 
is a characteristic trait of Chinese theology that 
while down to the twelfth century this goddess, 
Kuan Yin, was represented as a man, for the 
last six hundred years the di^dnity has under- 
gone a metamorphosis, and is now generally 
regarded as a goddess, to which the attribute of 
mercy is considered more appropriate. 

Buddhist temples are far more numerous in 
China than Taoist, but myriads of them are 
small and by far the larger number have no 
priest in attendance. In the northern part of 
the empire especially, there is much less atten- 
tion paid to them than elsewhere, and countless 
temples and shrines are seen decaying because 
the people feel too poor to repair them, and 
because they supply no really felt need. There 
is no doubt that the Buddhist monks, recruited 
as we have seen from the poorest and the most 
ignorant classes, fully deserve the ill-repute 
which they have gained. They withdraw from 
the use of the general community large tracts 
of land, in order to support in idleness, gam- 
bling, opium-smoking, and vice, social vampires 
who add nothing to the common weal, but suck 
the life-blood of China. Nunneries are fre- 
quent, the inmates being the children of those 
too poor to rear them. There may be virtuous 



THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 75 

women among tliem, but the shrewd adage 
runs : — 

" Ten Buddhist nuns, and nine are bad ; 
The odd one left is doubtless mad." 

It has always been recognized by the Con- 
fucianists as a great defect in Buddhism that it 
gives no instruction toward making one a good 
citizen. Its only remedy for the ills of life is to 
teach their unreality. Its precepts not to kill, not 
to steal, not to commit fornication, not to drink 
wine or eat meat, have not been without value ; 
but for ages Chinese Buddhism has been quite 
devoid of any ethical force. It has bestowed 
upon China the doctrine of the transmigration 
of souls, and it has given her the pagoda. It is 
impossible for a Christian missionary in China 
to announce his message without throwing down 
a challenge both to Taoism and to Buddhism. 
In this he meets with no opposition from the 
popular feeling. His attitude toward Confu- 
cianism should, on the other hand, be one of 
profound respect, never attacking it, but en- 
deavoring to exhibit what Christianity can do 
and does do as a divine religion. The defects 
of the Chinese are as obvious to themselves as 
to others, and are readily and frankly admitted. 
The only means by which Christianity will ever 
gain a foothold in China is by convincing object- 
lessons of its power to do that in which all the 
Three Religions have conspicuously failed. 



76 BEX CHRISTUS 

Mohammedanism in China 

The followers of the Prophet came to China 
more than a thousand years ago, in the T'ang 
dynasty, both by sea from ports on the Arabian 
Sea, and overland across Central Asia. The num- 
ber of them in China is indeterminate, but they 
are estimated at about twenty millions, the largest 
Mohammedan population being in the provinces 
of Kansuh, Hunan, and Shensi. They form a 
mechanical, as distinguished from a chemical, 
mixture with the Chinese, but as they speak 
the language of the regions which they occupy, 
from a linguistic point of view there is no line 
of demarcation between these widely different 
races. 

The cheek-bones and the prominent noses of 
the Mohammedans readily differentiate them 
from the Chinese, and they have a custom, un- 
known to the Chinese, of clipping the mustache. 
They worship God under the name of Chu, or 
Lord, but they do not propagate their doctrines; 
and in regions which they have occupied for 
half a millennium the Chinese have no clear 
idea of what Mohammedan tenets really are. 
They do not intermarry with the Chinese, but 
sometimes adopt Chinese children into Moham- 
medan families. Their religious services, while 
patterned on those in Mohammedan lands, are 
mostly formal, and except at the time of the 
Ramazan fast are but sparsely attended except 



THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 77 

by women. The strict law forbidding the trans- 
lation of the Koran has prevented it from exert- 
ing any influence on Chinese thought, although 
there is in China a considerable body of Moham- 
medan literature. The Chinese consider the 
Mohammedans to be violent in temper and cruel 
in disposition. It is certain that where this is 
practicable some of them take readily to the life 
of a freebooter. AYhile externally friendly to 
foreigners who teach a doctrine so allied to their 
own, the doctrine of Christ is to these people a 
great stumbling-block. The number of con- 
verts from their ranks has thus far been small, 
but there are signs that within the next genera- 
tion it may be much larger. One of their 
mollahs recently made the remark in regard to 
a mission station in his city, that until it was 
founded the Mohammedans were like a jar of 
pure water, but that on the advent of the Jesus 
religion the jar has been so stirred with a stick 
as to make the water appear turbid. By this 
he meant that in comparison with Chinese reli- 
gions Mohammedanism made an excellent show- 
ing, but that it could not hold its own against 
Christianity. 

Secret Sects 

China is honeycombed with secret societies, 
all of which, as the proverb says, " hang out the 
sign: Virtue practised here." Many of them 
have an object ultimately political, looking 



78 BEX CHRISTUS 

toward a change of dynasty, and they are all 
alike forbidden by the government. No com- 
plete catalogue of these sects has ever been 
made, or ever can be made, since the names vary 
in different places and in the same places at dif- 
ferent times. New ones are continually appear- 
ing, some of the old ones seem to die out, and 
after a long interval the names reappear with 
a new significance. Thus the I Ho Ch'uan 
(Boxers), or Fists of Harmony, of 1890, adopted 
the name of organizations much more than a 
hundred years old, formed with totally different 
purposes. Their books are literally manuals, 
being always copied by hand (as it is dangerous 
to have blocks cut and printing executed), and 
to outsiders they are practically inaccessible. 

The tenets held are of the most nebulous and 
composite description, being literally an amal- 
gam of Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian notions, 
brewed in one common kettle. Some of the 
sects practice refining the pill of immortality. 
Some of them spend their time in sitting on the 
Tc'ang^ or stove-bed, fixing their minds on vacancy, 
with a view to seeing worlds unknown. Their 
exertions are reviewed by a seer, called a 
"Bright-eye," who explains the symptoms of 
their experience. Many of them keep accounts 
with themselves, according to a graded system 
of merits for virtuous actions (such as relieving 
distress) and demerits for bad actions (such as 
failing to pick up paper having characters on 



THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 79 

it). The balance of accounts, when audited by 
the " Bright-eye," represents their standing to 
date. Some sects make use of a kind of plan- 
chette by which characters are traced in millet 
seeds, or in sand, thus revealing the secrets of 
fate as adumbrated by a " Great Fairy." Some 
sects simply worship Heaven, having no images, 
and no ceremonies but the h'otow. 

One recently developed but now famous 
society is called the Ritualists (Tsai-li), and 
forbids the use of wine, opium, etc., but appears 
to have no religious basis of any kind. Some 
of those most zealous in observing these rites 
are often sincere seekers after truth and gladly 
adopt Christianity as soon as it is presented to 
them. Others appear to do so, but after a longer 
or shorter period go quite back to their former 
creed, "for," he saith, "the old is better." 
Some missionaries regard the prevalence of 
these sects as a great assistance to the intro- 
duction of Christianity, while others have found 
them for the most part an obstruction. Many 
of the best Christians in the Chinese churches 
have once been adherents of some one of these 
sects. But there has never been any general 
movement among them toward Christianity, 
although such an event is not impossible and 
perhaps not improbable. 



80 BEX CEBISTUS 



SIGNIFICANT SENTENCES 

This mysterious race . . . with the Anglo-Saxons and 
the Russians, will divide the earth a hundred years hence. 

— Sir Lepel Griffin. 

The Chinaman is a religious triangle. — Dr. Marsh. 

There are people who read the best of the Confucian 
or Buddhist books, and say that the ideals are good ; but, 
if such think that the heathen do very well as they are, 
I should like to take them for one half hour through 
a Foochow street and let them see what life would be 
vv'ithout any of the refinement, or health, or human kind- 
ness that have come to them through the religion of 
Jesus. — Evelyn Worthley. 



Ancestral Worship 

The millions of China are bound to the worship of 
ancestors. From infancy to old age, in every turn of 
life, in aU seasons of joy or mourning, all are in some 
way associated with this very ancient custom. The fol- 
lowers of Confucius, the Buddhist, the Taoist, rich and 
poor, emperor and people, alike are influenced by it. 
This custom existed two thousand years before Confu- 
cius, but he confirmed its hold upon the people. 

. . . Once a year, in April, a wonderful and touching 
sight is to be seen in China. It is the spring festival for 
the dead. Every one visits the graves of his dead. It 
is a time that they look forward to and prepare for, even 
more than we do for Christmas or any great occasion. 
Groups of men, women and children may be seen in 
brightest, prettiest dresses, the women and girls with 
flowers in their hair, and all bearing baskets or packages 
of food, fruit, incense, candles and lanterns, and great 
bandies of paper clothing. — Mrs. Baldwin. 



THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 81 



SAYINGS OF CONFUCIUS 

To be fond of learning is the next thing to knowledge.. 
To be up and doing comes near to perfection. Know 
what shame is, and you will not be far from heroism. 

Given instruction, there will be no distinction of 
class. 

I do not understand life, how can I know death? 

Learning, undigested by thought, is labor lost ; 
thought, unassisted by learning, is perilous. 

Men of principle are sure to be bold, but those wha 
are bold may not always be men of principle. 

Have no friends not equal to yourself. 

Those whose courses are different cannot lay plans for 
one another. 

He who requires much from himself and little from 
others will keep himself from being the object of resent- 
ment. 

Want of forbearance in small matters confounds great 
plans. 

He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to 
make his words good. 



During all these forty-three centuries, while Confucius 
has done much for good government and has set soma 
high moral standards for men, women have reaped no 
benefit from the teachings of the sage. 

— Mrs. Moses Smith. 

THEMES FOR STUDY OR DISCUSSION 

I. Weakness of China's Religions as compared with 

Christianity. 
II. Popular Superstitions in China. 

III. Temples, Towers, and Pagodas. 

IV. Life of the Lamas. 

V. Chinese Religious Edacation in the Home. 



82 BEX CHBISTUS 

VI. Evil Effects of Xature Worship. 
YII. Secret Sects and their lufluence. 
YIII. Ancestral Worship and its Effect upon Character. 
IX. Feng Shui, or the Science of Luck. 
X. Why the Proud Literati oppose Christianity. 
XI. Compare the Confucian White Deer College with 

Christian Colleges in England and America. 
XII. Peking the " Forbidden City." 



BOOKS OF REFERENCE 
General references as before 

Bainbridge's "Around the World Tour of Christian 

Missions." II, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX. 
Bishop's " The Yangtze Valley and Beyond." Ill, V. 
Colquhoun's " Overland to China." XII. 
Douglas's " Society in China." I, V, VIII, X, XL 
Du Bose's " The Dragon, Image, and Demon." II, III, 

YI, YII, YIII, IX. 
Dukes's " Everyday Life in China." Ill, V, YIII, IX. 
Edkins's " Religions in China." I, II, III, IV, V, YI, YIL 
Gibson's "Missionary Problems and Methods in South 

China." I, V, X. 
Gilmom-'s " Among the Mongols." I, III, lY, XII. 
Gracey's " China in Outline." I. 
" Great Religions of the World " (Harper, 1901). I. 
Henry's "Ling-nam, or Interior Views of South China." 

II, III, lY, V, YI, IX. 
Hue's " Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China." IV. 
Johnston's " China and Its Future." X. 
Legge's " Religions of China." I, II, VI, VII, YIIL 
Mackay's " From Far Formosa." V. 
Moule's "]S'ew China and Old." II, VII, YIII. 
Muirhead's " China and the Gospel." I. 
Nevius's "China and the Chinese." H, VI, VH, YIII, 

IX. 



THE BELIGIONS OF CHINA 83 

Report of Shanghai Conference, 1877. I, 11, VI, VII, 

VIII. 
Rockhill's " Land of the Lamas." II, IV, XII. 
Speer's " Missions and Politics in Asia." I, II, VII, VIII. 
Wilson's " China." IX, XIL 
"Williamson's " Journeys in China." I, II, XII. 



Articles on China in Periodicals : — 

Atlantic, Vol. 52, " John Chinaman, M.D." VIIL 
Eclectic, Vol. 82, « Feng Shui." IX. 
Livi7ig Age, Vol. 68, " Peking." XII. 
Review of Reviews, Vol. 23 (from Nouvelle Revue), 
" Chinese Magic." II, IX. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PEOPLE OF CHETA - 

In a series of outlines such as are contained 
in the present book it is out of the question to 
make a comprehensive study of the peculiar 
people whom we are considering. All that can 
be attempted in this chapter is to select a few 
salient points, with a view especially to show 
how they are related to the effort to bring to 
the Chinese a practical knowledge of Christian- 
ity. The first impression which the traveller 
receives on visiting China is the vast numbers 
of its people. The teeming millions appear like 
a hive of bees, like a nest of ants, like a swarm 
of insects in the air. We have already referred 
to the various guesses at the possible population 
of the empire, and there is no reason why, if 
that figure is insisted upon, we may not consent 
to the estimate of four hundred millions as a 
total. But these words convey no definite idea 
to any mind, and are much less efficient than a 
computation of the inhabitants to a square mile, 
which vary from a relatively small number in 
the mountainous and sparsely settled regions, 
up to five hundred, eight hundred, and in some 
84 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 85 

exceptional districts perhaps more than two 
thousand ! A part of the Great Plain of China 
is certainly one of the most densely populated 
sections of the planet, a fact which has important 
bearings on many of the problems which concern 
the future of the empire. This incomputable 
number of human beings are related to one 
another in a way elsewhere unexampled. 

Solidarity of Chinese Society. — Through the 
long millenniums of Chinese history the pro- 
cesses of unification have been steadily at work, 
so that there is in Chinese society a solidarity 
which does not and cannot elsewhere exist. 
The common study of common text-books con- 
tinued for ages, the contemplation of the same 
ideals, and the perpetual effort to impress them 
upon every thinking mind, have brought about 
this striking result. In western lands we are 
familiar with the thought of the individual as 
the social unit, and the process of individualiza- 
tion begins early, and is soon completed. In 
China, on the other hand, the family, or the clan, 
is the unit, and the individual is but a cog in a 
long series of wheels, which are all moved by 
the same common impulse, and inevitably in the 
same direction. To continue the mechanical 
illustration, cogs, wheels, cylinders, shafts, belts, 
upper and lower alike, are all responsive to the 
rhythmic revolutions of the great turbine far 
below, which for ages has gone on its unchang- 
ing way. It is conceivable that each unit in 



86 BEX CHBISTUS 

this long series might be persuaded of the theo- 
retical fact that its motion is abnormal and in 
the wrong direction, and yet recognize its help- 
lessness and the hopelessness of any alteration. 
For down under the turbine is the great river, 
and as the river flows so goes the shaft, belt, 
cylinder, wheel, and cog. 

This exaggerated simile is not suggested as 
exhibiting realities, for it is happily far from 
doing so, but only to set forth the impression 
made on the mind of one who deliberately sets 
himself to the task of altering, intellectually and 
morally, the complex phenomena of an empire 
like China. In China no person, man, woman, 
or child, is a free agent. There are not only the 
general social obligations proceeding from an 
intricate mass of well-settled principles and 
precedents, but there is a forest of "personal 
equations " to be reckoned with. A father has 
power over his children which is not less abso- 
lute than that of the most imperial monarch. 
He may even kill his offspring, or sell his adult 
children into slavery. Their property is his 
property, and as long as the father lives their 
families are under his control. This tyranny of 
the upper generation extends through a great 
variety of ramifications, and is especially efficient 
in subordinating the younger and the feminine 
portions of the family. It is not merely objec- 
tive authority which weaves a web of entangle- 
ment about all Chinese, but the scarcely less 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 87 

potent bonds of sentiment, and especially custom, 
which may be said to be the real divinity of most 
of the people of China. What has been done 
may be done, what has not been done is for that 
reason outlawed. The phrase which denotes 
heresy in Chinese, is literally " a different doc- 
trine," and its antithesis is " true learning," to 
wit, that which is everywhere taught and which 
ought to be taught. From data like these it is 
easy to infer that into this changeless race no 
new ideas can penetrate, or penetrating can find 
lodgment. Yet while all that has been said 
represents but a part of the cast-iron theory of 
Chinese environment, God has not made the 
soul of any race impervious to spiritual truth. 
When Chinese once come to a perception of the 
existence of a Heavenly Father, their instincts of 
filial piety show them the necessity of obedience 
to him, and neglect of it as a capital sin. The 
solidarity of the family is a two-edged sword, 
and it may work for the toleration and diffusion 
of a divine truth as well as against it. The 
density of population, and the intricate ramifi- 
cations of family and social life, afford so many 
more avenues through which new and vitalized 
conceptions of duty and privilege may every- 
where find their devious ways. 

Fixity of Residence. — It is a Buddhist saying, 
that " when one individual attains to the path, 
nine generations ascend to the skies." One of 
the most striking contrasts between the Occiden- 



88 BEX CRBISTUS 

tals and the Chinese is the instability of location 
among the former, and the opposite in the latter. 
Most Chinese are born, live, and die in the 
same place without having been anywhere or 
seen anything worth mentioning. But even 
when they " go far and fly high," it is still true 
that "the world has a million roosts but only 
one nest." " The old soil is hard to leave," we 
hear them say, and so it is. They are in reality 
anchored in unconscious Confucian bondage to 
the graves of their ancestors, and it is these, not 
their adobe hovels, which it is hard to leave, for 
the reason that sacrifices to ancestors constitute 
a large part of the duty of filial descendants. 
Given, then, fixity of residence added to social 
and family solidarity, when persecution arises 
from within a family because one of its members 
has struck out a new route in accordance with 
" another doctrine," we have need of patience 
and of much faith. Sometimes it is possible for 
one to avail himself of the scripture suggestion 
to fly to another city, but more frequently, for a 
variety of reasons, this is impracticable. In 
such cases it is a satisfaction to know by the crucial 
test of actual experience and observation that 
the Lord is able, even under these adverse con- 
ditions, both to keep and to deliver his children. 
It not infrequently happens that it is the ex- 
emplary behavior of those thus harassed which 
wins the obdurate hearts of their persecutors, 
who are often most literally their tormentors. 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 89 

There is in the epistles of the New Testament no 
exhortation to steadfastness which is not equally 
and peculiarly applicable to Chinese Christians, 
often walking in a narrow and thorny path; 
and happily there is no promise to those that 
endure unto the end which is not likewise veri- 
fied in the history of the Chinese martyrs, living 
and dead. 

Unity in Variety. — At first sight all Chinese 
look alike, but upon a better acquaintance they 
are seen to have striking differences among 
themselves, not merely as regards separate prov- 
inces in parts of the empire mutually distant, 
but even in regions adjacent to one another. 
Yet, on the other hand, every Chinese is himself 
China in small. Their postulates, their ideals, 
their motives, and their methods are so much 
alike, that being excellent judges of human 
nature they have only to look at themselves in 
the glass and they see also everybody else. It 
is in this way that Christianity is able to bring 
to bear its most irrefragable proofs. Those who 
know human nature and their own nature only 
too well, and then see others with that same 
nature essentially and inexplicably modified by 
unknown forces, are in a mood to be willing to 
hear what it is that is able to achieve such re- 
sults. A confirmed gambler, or still more an 
inveterate and incurable opium-smoker, lost to 
the " Five Relations," and dead to shame, when 
rescued and made into a new man is such a wit- 



90 BEX CHRISTUS 

ness to the power of an endless life as cannot be 
refuted or ignored. Opium-smoking and gam- 
bling are, indeed, the greatest vices of the Chinese 
race, but they are only more obtrusive and not 
less harmful than the wrath, bitterness, and re- 
viling, which may be said to be invariable con- 
comitants of Chinese social life, to an extent 
and to a degree of which in western lands it is 
difficult to form any adequate notion. It is in 
these traits first of all that moral reformation is 
to be sought, and if it is found it is a sign of 
new forces at work, as rudimentary buds are the 
promise and prophecy of a coming spring. 

Unity in variety and variety in unity is one 
of the most marked characteristics of the Chi- 
nese race. It is itself the product of causes which 
have been operant during unknown millenniums 
upon incomputable millions of people, "dura- 
tion multiplied by numbers," on a scale never 
elsewhere even imagined. It is this which gives 
rise to the cohesion of Chinese with one another, 
a quality so universal and so remarkable that it 
resembles chemical attraction. Their guilds and 
secret societies hold together without the aid of 
law, often against law, with a tenacity which 
cannot be surpassed. 

Industry and Poverty. — There are thus 
elements in the Chinese character of great sta- 
bility and strength. Nothing is required to 
bring them fully out but a great motive, and 
this Christianity can supply and does supply. 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 91 

When it has been assimilated by the Chinese 
it will not improbably take on new types, as it 
has so often done before. The experience of 
the past few years is wholly sufficient to make 
it certain that Chinese Christians will be the 
equal of any Christians, and that some of them 
are so already. Yet Christianity has to overcome 
formidable obstacles even to get the slenderest 
footing in China. There is, indeed, no system 
of caste, but there is a broad gulf between the 
different classes of society. The learned and 
the unlearned live in different worlds, and to 
pass from the lower to the higher seems hope- 
less and impossible. It is a fact of importance 
that in China poverty has never been a disgrace, 
and that some of the most stimulating ideals 
placed before every learner are stories of those 
who, by singleness of purpose and perseverance, 
have surmounted incredible obstacles and won 
the two favorite objects of Chinese pursuit, 
name and gain. It is one of the melancholy 
phenomena in China that despite the unrivalled 
and tireless industry of its inhabitants, poverty 
is the key-note of this great empire. Its causes 
are many and complex. Its manifestations are 
protean and universal. 

Puzzling Problems.— The most hopeful phi- 
lanthropist is overwhelmed with the continental 
scope of the problems thus suggested. The 
most ardent evangelist finds himself confronted 
with preliminary puzzles which must assuredly 



92 BEX GRBISTUS 

give him pause. Men, women, children are in 
bondage to the inexorable necessity of, in some 
way, securing the means of subsistence. They 
who have nothing to eat in the life which now 
is — how shall they command time to be told, 
in dimly comprehended language, of a life to 
come in which eating has no place? It is in 
China if anywhere that one may fall back upon 
the comfort embodied in the crowning proof 
of the divinity of the Master's message that " to 
the poor the gospel is preached." It is among 
them that some of the most conspicuous examples 
of Christian fidelity are to be found, that some 
of the most intelligent recipients and most 
earnest promulgators of the faith are to be 
met. The margin between the scanty subsist- 
ence which is only adequate to enable one to 
exist, but not to live, and bare necessities, is so 
narrow that he who undertakes the organization 
and the administration of a Christian community 
in such an environment, at once raises socio- 
logical questions which permanently retain one 
of the leading peculiarities of Banquo's ghost, 
they "will not down." 

The religious innovator probably puts into the 
hands of his inquirers the gospels first of all, 
and in them the learner reads with joy the pre- 
cept : " Give to him that asketh thee, and from 
him that would borrow of thee turn not thou 
away." Unless he receives what is technically 
termed a loan, but by which is usually meant a 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 93 

transfer of money in cases of emergency, with- 
out interest and probably not to be repaid, the 
petitioning adherent will be dragged to the 
yamen and permanently imprisoned for default 
of taxes on land (not improbably land which is 
really non-existent, that is, land which, owing 
to mismeasurements, has been extinguished by 
transfers to its neighbors, nothing but the taxes 
remaining to mark the site). Unless a widow 
with six children, nearly all of them small, and 
all of them " of no use," receives timely assist- 
ance in the month of April, her crumbling house 
will come down over her head in the rains of 
July. Unless a sum of money, borrowed at the 
ruinous rate of two per cent a month, is at once 
repaid (which can only be accomplished by help 
from the foreign friend, the only real one 
known), the remaining half acre of land must 
be sold to pay the debt, and the family reduced 
to beggary. Each of these is a hona fide and an 
exigent case ; each presses for immediate settle- 
ment, and unhappily each is a precedent. 

Can one interfere in an ancient, crystallized 
civilization like that of China and not do more 
harm than good? How is it possible in the 
face of woes like these not to interfere ? With 
dilemmas of this sort the " Foreigner in Far 
Cathay " is perpetually confronted, and if he is 
able to formulate or to discover any rule, or even 
any principle which is adequate to guide his steps, 
his experience will be exceptional and peculiar. 



94 REX CHRISTUS 

Sentiment toward Foreigners. — With such 
a vast background as has been outlined in a pre- 
vious chapter, it is not strange that the Chinese 
look upon their own history as that of the human 
race as a whole, ignoring as irrelevant and un- 
important what lies outside of and beyond their 
national experience. This places the foreign 
religious reformer in the position of an alien in- 
truder, against whom is every presupposition, 
and in whose favor there is, for the most part, 
nothing at all. It is on this account, if on no 
other, most important that those who wish effi- 
ciently to influence Chinese thought, and to 
awaken Chinese religious emotions, should, in 
advance of their overt efforts, have a reasonably 
clear conception of what it is that they are to 
exert their strength upon, and what things are to 
be left alone ; what things are to be established, 
and what things are to be taken for granted. 
It is therefore most desirable to have had an 
intelligent and a sympathetic study of what 
already exists, as a precedent qualification for 
intelligent exertion to that end. 

The instinctive dislike of the foreigner on 
the part of the Chinese is not without a firm 
historical warrant. It is also exactly paralleled 
by their undisguised contempt for their own 
countrymen from other and especially distant 
provinces, who are frequently referred to by 
nicknames which express in stinging epithets 
the innate disdain felt for them. They are not 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 95 

only constantly spoken of as barbarians, but are 
treated as foreigners, and when away from home 
are placed under numerous and permanent disa- 
bilities. This is true, for example, of Cantonese 
merchants doing business not merely at the far 
north, but in the adjacent province of Fukien, 
of the men from Shansi who are all over the 
empire, and of those from Shantung, who are 
dubbed louts and bumpkins. It is a remarkable 
fact that the Chinese seldom or never boast of 
their great empire, and of its persistent survival 
triumphant " o'er the wrecks of time " ; they 
merely assume it as a matter of course. They 
do not, like some sensitive peoples, inquire what 
you " think of our institutions." They do not 
care what you think, or what any one thinks, 
and the very idea of such a thing is altogether 
foreign to their intellectual outfit. 

Patriotism. — Their conspicuous lack of any- 
thing like what we term patriotism has attracted 
much remark, especially in view of the strikingly 
opposite qualities of the Japanese. Patriotism 
in a rudimentary form does exist, and it can, 
and perhaps will, be developed, but at present it 
is replaced by a blind but powerful national feel- 
ing, unorganized, inchoate, and for the most part 
dumb as well as blind, but susceptible of being 
mightily aroused with startling and unforeseen 
results. The extremely delicate and often 
dangerous position of foreigners environed by 
conditions like this has been made manifest to 



yb BEX CHBISTUS 

the world, and it is important to understand 
that these factors of national life and of inter- 
national relations are to be permanent. Like 
friction in machinery, the depth of mineral 
deposits, or the trend of a mountain range, 
they must be taken account of as existent and, 
at present, unalterable facts. 

Conservatism. — That trait of the Chinese 
which is included under the general term con- 
servatism is the instinctive effort to retain intact 
the priceless heritage of the mighty past. Con- 
fucius was that one of the ancients who most 
effectively determined the key-note of the 
thought and the life of the Chinese race, and 
it was done by reverence and admiration for the 
ancients, and by struggling at all costs to imi- 
tate their example. Thus the face of the mas- 
ter was definitely and deliberately turned to the 
past, and the face of China has been in like 
manner turned in the same direction ever since. 
It is this which has tended to make real progress 
in China difficult, if not impossible, and this it 
is which gives rise to one of the greatest puzzles 
in considering the history of the empire, how it 
has contrived to be a persistent exception to the 
otherwise universal law that a nation and a race 
must either advance or die ; whereas the Clii- 
nese appear to have declined either to advance 
or to die, and have gone on their way moulded by 
the ideals and clinging to the ideas of the past 
down to this present time. 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 97 

That this process can no longer be continued 
has become dimly obvious even to the most con- 
servative Manchus and Chinese. But what ta 
do about it they cannot and will not decide^ 
They prefer to drift with the current rather 
than to attempt to steer in waters hitherto un- 
known, and under conditions which, for the 
most part, they but vaguely apprehend. It thus 
becomes plain why it is that the Chinese are so 
phenomenally destitute of initiative, and how it 
is that as individuals in their experience, and as 
a nation and a race in their histoiy, they have 
so often illustrated that definition of the con- 
servatives as "those who, when they got into 
hot water, stayed there lest they should be 
scalded." The typical Confucianist who re- 
gards the beginning and the ending of all wis- 
dom as comprised in the doctrine of reciprocity 
as taught by the master, is inevitably annoyed 
that an attempt should be made to add anything 
to, or to subtract anything from, this thesis, espe- 
cially by foreigners from countries whose civili- 
zation — such as it is — dates but from a time 
when China was practically as old as now, and 
whose ancestors, at the time of China's greatest 
splendor, were wild men in the woods. 

How a Chinese Scholar views Christianity. 
— In the essay of Mr. P'eng Kuang Yu, at the 
Parliament of Religions (quoted in the preced- 
ing chapter), he takes pains to show that what 
is called religion is of no service to China and 



98 b:ex cheistus 

the Chinese. " Granting that the belief in 
heaven and hell and the final judgment is well 
founded, he who has tasted the pleasures derived 
from the fulfilment of his duties to society, has 
already ascended into heaven, and he who allows 
the lust of the flesh to defile his heart and per- 
vert the use of his senses, has already entered 
hell. What need is there in troubling the 
Great Lord of the Eastern Mountain of the 
Taoist, the Yen Lo of the Buddhists, and 
the Christ of the Christians to judge the dead 
after death and reward every man according to 
his deserts ? " In the closing paragraph of an 
essay by far the longest at the Parliament, he 
disclaims his fitness to treat of religion at all, 
on the ground that " the progress of Christianity 
does not concern Confucianists in the least." 
He endeavors to make it appear, by reiterated 
assertion, that while it seems that missionaries 
(especially from the United States) come from 
a highly respectable class of society, they meet 
in China only the very dregs of the people, that 
they are constantly and inevitably deluded as 
to the character of their converts, and that 
"they make no attempt to study the political 
institutions and the educational principles of 
the Chinese people, and aim only to carry out 
their own notions of what is right." 

In another passage he says: "After all, to do 
reverence to spirits is to do nothing more than 
to refrain from giving them annoyance, and to 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 99 

do reverence to Heaven is nothing more than to 
refrain from giving it annoyance. On points 
like this the ritual code is full and explicit. 
There is consequently no demand for other reli- 
gious works." "What the Confucianists call 
things spiritual is nothing more than the law of 
action and reaction, which operates upon matter 
without suffering loss, and which causes the sea- 
sons to come round without deviation. What 
priests of the two sects (Taoism and Buddhism) 
call things spiritual, consist of prayers and 
repentance, which they make use of as a means 
of practising deception upon the people by giv- 
ing out that they can reveal the secrets of hap- 
piness and misery thereby. As a rule, they are 
men given to speculations on the invisible world 
of spirits, and neglectful of the requirements 
and duties of life. For this reason they are 
employed by public functionaries to officiate on 
occasions of public worship, and at the same 
time they are despised by the Confucianists as 
the dregs of the people." "The right principles 
of action can only be discovered by studying the 
waxing and the waning of the active and the 
passive elements as set forth in the 'Book of 
Changes,' and surely cannot be understood by 
those who believe in what the priests call the 
dispensations of Providence." "If by living 
according to the dictates of nature, and by sup- 
pressing the desires of the flesh, one arrives at 
a perfect agreement with nature, and obtains a 



iLsiaj 



100 BEX CHRISTUS 

complete mastery over desires, such a one Bud- 
dhists call a Buddha, Taoists a Genius, and 
Christians a child of God. . . . All philosophi- 
cal systems recognise some ideal state of human 
perfection, though it is known under different 
names. It seems rather unnecessary for think- 
ers of different schools to attack the opinions of 
one another, for owing to the difference of nat- 
ural endowments and social surroundings, all 
men cannot possibly arrive at the same opinion 
on any subject." 

And once more this learned Chinese Celsus, 
after explaining how the better class of Chinese 
looked with indifference upon missionaries until 
"a diplomatic officer of high rank lent his power- 
ful testimony to the support of the missionary 
cause," adds that since then "every self-respect- 
ing man has studiously avoided the sight of 
missionaries, knowing that their chief object is 
to undermine by their teaching what he holds 
dear. The turbulent element of the population, 
however, often finds it to their interest to turn 
Christian." "Christian missionaries in China 
can do neither good nor harm to the power of 
Confucianism by spreading the doctrines they 
espouse, because they associate only with the 
dregs of the people, or educated men of loose 
morals!" "An increase in the number of con- 
verts is considered as a measure of the success 
of missionary labors, and may be made the 
subject of boast on the part of the missionary 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 101 

concerned, in his reports to those who sent him. 
Even if there are law-abiding individuals among 
the converts, it may be asserted with confidence 
that there are no intelligent and educated persons 
among them, for the reason that no intelligent 
and educated person will embrace the religion of 
another people." 

Race Characteristics 

These copious quotations from the first author- 
ized, and in a manner semi-official, exponent of 
Confucianism to the western world, ought to 
make it clear how Chinese conservatism bars 
the mind and the soul to an apprehension, not 
to say reception, of the real meaning of Chris- 
tianity and a Christ. Chinese society is compact, 
and highly organized after an ancient pattern. 
There is a mutual responsibility which is more 
carefully developed than in any other land, 
which, beginning with one's mundane existence, 
follows him to its close, implicating even ances- 
tors and posterity. The complicated involutions 
of the working of this principle are to a foreigner 
almost incomprehensible, and to a Chinese are 
one of the principal factors of his environment. 

Under conditions like these, and in the pres- 
ence of an unknown number of potentially influ- 
ential enemies, it behooves every Chinese to walk 
softly, like soldiers who have captured a fort in 
which there is danger that, by a chance misstep, 
some unperceived contact mine may be exploded. 



102 BEX CHBISTUS 

and the unhappy blunderer may be maimed or 
annihilated. Chinese life is full of phenomena 
of which this is an unhappily accurate analogue. 
It is therefore not unnatural that one of the 
most rudimentary presuppositions of all Chinese 
is, that it is dangerous to give offence, for among 
Chinese there are practically no secrets. Every 
human being is, to a large extent, in the power 
of a great many others, for whose use of their 
power there is no guarantee of any sort. The 
complaint of the scholar and official just quoted, 
that missionaries are in the habit of receiving 
among their followers every variety of rascal 
which China affords, and of which, as he says, 
the supply is inexhaustible, is probably based 
upon very narrow premises, and upon possible 
facts looked at through spectacles strongly col- 
ored by prejudice. Both Roman Catholics and 
Protestants vigorously repudiate it, and for the 
same reason, that in either case it must be fatal 
to the objects which they have in view. Never- 
theless, in the former case there is overwhelming 
evidence, and never more so than in the years 
since the Boxer failure, that there is more than 
mere rumor in these allegations. Bad men 
do worm themselves into both branches of the 
Christian church in China, however vigilant 
the shepherds may be, and it is mainly due to 
the trait which has just been mentioned. It is 
a common circumstance in China that every one 
knows a fact, except the person whom it espe- 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 103 

cially concerns. No one likes to tell what is 
disagreeable, and as a rule, if there is any fear 
of unpleasant consequences to the witness no 
one will tell it. 

Talent for Indirection. — It is this which makes 
it so difficult for the most conscientious and dis- 
creet missionary to be quite sure that he is in 
possession of all the needed data in any given 
case. The difficulty in getting at " the bottom 
facts" frequently is that there are no "facts" 
available, and, as the pilots say, " no bottom." 
"Who told you that?" is the first indignant 
inquiry of an accused Chinese, and unless the 
accuser is phenomenally sure of his ground and 
ready for all five acts of a most dramatic drama, 
he is quite as likely to withdraw the charge 
upon a plea of misunderstanding as to sub- 
stantiate it. If it is insisted upon, he knows 
that the other party to the case will " go after " 
him, a compound verb of fateful meaning, for in 
China no one desires to be gone after. When 
the Christian church has been firmly established 
these Chinese traits become gold-plated and 
silver-plated with Christian obligations and tra- 
ditions ; but let there come a time of special 
strain and stress, and the gold and silver plating 
will in many cases (not, however, in all) wear 
off, exposing the baser metal beneath. This is 
that reversion to type which all scientists take 
account of, and of which the history of Chris- 
tianity, even in our own land at the present day, 



104 BEX CHRISTUS 

has always been full. It is after an extended 
experience of this fact in its larger meanings that 
one apprehends the significance of the biblical 
references to the third and fourth generation. 
No less time than that is required for the re- 
generation of a race, so that every fibre of the 
moral and the spiritual nature may be instinc- 
tively responsive to the new life, and a Christian 
heredity may have appropriate time in which to 
do its work. 

Suspicion and Distrust. — Connected with the 
last-mentioned race characteristic is another, per- 
haps rather Oriental than Chinese, a mutual sus- 
picion which looks for danger everywhere, and 
like a hunted animal is ever on the alert for foes 
concealed. It is literally impossible for those 
reared in the Christian atmosphere, in which even 
the most threatening of commercial and financial 
tyrannies is rightly called a " trust," to compre- 
hend the conditions which prevail where no one 
wholly confides in any one, and where this mutual 
absence of confidence is on all hands much more 
than justified. Every one of those "Five Re- 
lations " so much vaunted in China is, from this 
cause, filled with gall and bitterness. The stranger 
from abroad finds himself the object of a pro- 
found distrust, which he is helpless to dispel, or 
even to mitigate. It is this which gives rise 
to riots and to massacres, born from that " evil 
heart of unbelief" which finds it impossible to 
credit the existence of a good motive when a 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 105 

bad one can be suggested. Even this, however, 
may be lived down, and in the very places where 
they once occurred there may, at last, be estab- 
lished the forms of a reciprocal good-will not 
again readily interrupted. But this requires 
time, tact, and indefinite patience. Yet it is a 
singular and instructive fact that, once past the 
preliminary stages, it is easier to gain the con- 
fidence of the average Chinese for the average 
foreigner, than a like confidence of the Chinese 
in one another, and this whether the question 
be one of objective fact, or of trustworthiness in 
the handling of money. 

The bearing of all this on the complicated 
relations of everyday life must be left to the 
more or less vivid imagination of the reader. 
Its relation to the exigencies of the more diffi- 
cult cases of discipline in the native church is 
too serious to be omitted. Here is the faith and 
patience of the saints ; and here, also, will 
Christianity establish itself as able to do what 
unaided human nature could never by any pos- 
sibility compass. 

Untruthfulness and Insincerity. — Another 
phase of the same side of the Chinese character 
is its innate untruthfulness under given condi- 
tions. This does not mean that the Chinese 
are a nation of liars, for they are not. On the 
contrary, there is adequate reason to believe 
them to be by far the most truthful of Asiatics. 
But it does signify that under certain stress of 



106 REX CHRISTUS 

danger or fear every Chinese will either tell a 
falsehood or he will tell nothing at all. This 
is done by an innate as well as by a cultivated 
instinct, like that of the serpent that slides into 
the jungle, or the bull-frog that dives into a 
mud-hole. There has never been any more 
question in regard to the legitimacy of such a 
proceeding on the part of the Chinese than on 
that of the snake or the frog. It is both na- 
ture and second nature. The Chinese have 
many and conspicuous virtues, among which are 
their faithfulness to duty, their sobriety, their 
unfailing industry, their unequalled patience, 
their inextinguishable cheerfulness, manifesting 
itself in blooming flowers, in warbling birds, and 
smiling faces, even in the midst of deep poverty, 
gloomy prospects, and heavy hearts. All these 
are wonderful and admirable endowments. And 
here, on the other hand, we have the chief fault 
of all, their deep-rooted, all-pervading insin- 
cerity both of word and deed. 

The last of the "Five Constant Virtues," 
sincerity, appears to be " constant " only in its 
absence. This is true in every relation of life, 
from the top of the social ladder to the very 
base, and all through and through, Christianity 
aside. Many true things are said in China, 
many sincere acts are done, many hearts do not 
fail to beat responsive to duty and to honor, but 
one can never be sure which words, which acts, 
which hearts are the ones to be trusted. The 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 1C7 

philosopliy of this grave defect in the Chinese 
character, this is not the place to examine. Of 
the fact itself there is no doubt. Every Protes- 
tant missionary is anxious to have his flock of 
Christians such as fear God and work righteous- 
ness, but in the effort to compass this end he 
not infrequently finds that when endeavoring to 
investigate the *' facts " in any case he is chasing 
a school of cuttlefish through seas of ink. The 
conscience of those who have been born into 
a new life is not suddenly transformed, yet the 
change does take place and upon a large scale. 
"When once it has been accomplished, a new force 
has been introduced into the Chinese Empire, 
a salt to preserve, a leaven to pervade, a seed 
to bring forth after its kind in perpetually 
augmenting abundance and fertility. 

Saving One*s **Face.** — It is an integral 
part of both Chinese theory and practice that 
realities are of much less importance than 
appearances. If the latter can be saved, the 
former may be altogether surrendered. This 
is the essence of that mysterious " face " of 
which we are never done hearing in China, the 
significance and relations of which can never be 
fully apprehended by any foreigner. The world 
is conceived of as in Shakespeare, under the 
figure of a theatrical stage, "and all the men 
and women merely players." The line of Pope 
might be the Chinese national motto : " Act well 
your part, there all the honor lies ; " not, be it 



108 BEX CRBISTUS 

observed, doing well what is to be done, but 
consummate acting^ contriving to convey tlie 
appearance of a thing or a fact, whatever the 
realities may be. This is Chinese high art; 
this is success. It is self-respect, and it in- 
volves and implies the respect of others. It is, 
in a word, " face." The preservation of " face " 
frequently requires that one should behave in 
an arbitrary and violent manner merely to em- 
phasize his prot-ests against the course of current 
events. He or she must fly into a violent rage, 
he or she must use reviling and perhaps impre- 
catory language, else it will not be evident to 
the spectators of the drama, in which he is at the 
moment acting, that he is aware just what ought 
to be done b}^ a person in his precise situation ; 
and then he will have "no way to descend from 
the stage," or in other words, he will have lost 
"face." 

We have just seen, in the citations from the 
essay of Mr. P'eng, that the well-bred Confu- 
cianist is not deceived by Taoist fables or by 
Buddhist myths. He is a triple-plated agnostic, 
with a short creed, and all his duties in plain 
sight, and capable of being duly inventoried 
every morning. But in practice a Confucianist 
is, after all, but a human being ; and while he 
believes nothing which he cannot see, he also 
believes everything which others believe, more 
especially at times when he is driven into a cor- 
ner. Thus the firm basis is laid for that social 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 109 

d3aiamite of which we have spoken in the pre- 
ceding chapters, composed of angry human 
passions mingled with varying proportions of 
the supernatural and the infra-natural. 

In the language of a former British consular 
officer of long experience and wide observation 
(Mr. T. T. Cooper) : " Underneath their practi- 
cal and sensible exterior there lurks a sleeping 
demon of the blindest superstition, which re- 
quires only the slightest touch to change them 
into insensible madmen, reckless of life, and 
savage as wild beasts ; and this dreadful curse is 
not only common amongst the uneducated, but 
amongst the literati and governing classes also." 
Of this phenomenon extensive exhibits have 
recently been made in sight of the whole world, 
and we need not dwell upon them in this con- 
nection. It is well, however, to mention that 
there is an analogous set of phenomena in ordi- 
nary social life, due to the sudden exigencies of 
"face." No man, no woman, no child with 
whom one has, or can have, anything to do but 
is alwaj^s potentially on the verge of a " strike," 
because in some way, not unlikely quite un- 
known and incomprehensible to his foreign 
employer, the employee's " facial angle " has 
been unduly deflected. Cooks, sewing women, 
coolies, office-boys, shroffs, compradores, teachers, 
upon due provocation, all exhibit this trait ; and 
after a due recognition of their point of view, 
one and all may return to their avocations 



110 BEX CHBISTUS 

with a smile of triumph, as of one who has nobly 
done his whole duty; or, their point of view 
not being that of their employer, their path 
thenceforth curves off into a parabola and they 
are seen no more. 

Christianity a Solvent. — The group of traits 
here mentioned reaches down into the deepest 
roots of Chinese character and life. There is 
abundant evidence, external and internal, that 
they have always constituted a part of the intel- 
lectual and moral equipment of the race. Many 
of them are wholly incompatible with a thorough- 
going acceptance of Christian ideals, and for 
that reason alone there are many who know the 
Chinese well to whom the vision of a China 
transformed, in such a way that these peculiarly 
Chinese peculiarities shall be essentially modi- 
fied or abolished, is "an iridescent dream." The 
question ought to be raised, but for readers of a 
book like this it need not be argued. The gos- 
pel of God is always and everywhere adequate 
to the redemption of the children of men, and its 
adaptations to the Chinese have been demon- 
strated for many hundred years and on an ever 
enlarging scale. In the century which has 
now opened it is certain that such a number and 
variety of convincing object-lessons will be added 
that all those not altogether incapable of per- 
ceiving spiritual phenomena will be compelled 
to admit that Christianity has a vital relation to 
the welfare of China and the Chinese. 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 111 

To those immediately concerned in the intro- 
duction and the dissemination of this faith there 
are two capital problems: How so to present 
the gospel as to win the non-Christian Chinese 
to hear it ; how to bridge the permanent gulf 
between races ; how to fulfil the Master's last 
great commission in the Land of Sinim. On 
the other hand : How to plant and to train the 
native churches that they may strike a deep tap- 
root into native soil, independent of their origin ; 
how to prepare the way by which the Spirit of 
God may overcome inborn inertia, timidity, and 
conformity to custom, plant " truth in the inward 
parts," and bring forth the fruits of that Spirit 
in the life ; how so to prepare the way that the 
churches of China, like those of the New Testa- 
ment, may be self-propagating, so that the word 
of the Lord may sound forth from them in every 
province and dependency of the Chinese Empire. 

WAYMARKS IN THE HISTORY OF MISSIONS 

IN CHINA 

From 1800 to 1902 

1800. Attention turned to China by discovery of Chinese 

manuscript in British Museum. 
1804. British and Foreign Bible Society formed. 
1806. Robert Morrison of England sails from New York for 

China. 
1814. New Testament translated. First Chinese baptized. 
1818. Old Testament translated. Anglo-Chinese College. 

Malacca. 
1821. Morrison completes his Chinese Dictionary. 



112 BEX CHBISTUS 

1830. Arrival first Am. missionaries — Bridgman and 
Abeel. Canton. (Cong.) 

1834. Dr. Peter Parker opens hospital at Singapore. 

1842. Treaty of Nanking. Five ports opened. Soon occu- 
pied by twelve missionary societies. 

1844. Mission Press at Macao. Removed next year to 

Ningpo. 1860 to Shanghai. (Pres.) 
Eirst Boarding School for Girls. Ningpo. By Miss 
Aldersey. (Eng.) Independent. 

1845. First (Am.) Boarding School for Girls. Mngpo. 

(Pres.) Miss Aldersey 's united with this in 1857. 
1850. T'ai P'ing Rebellion. Twenty million lives lost. 
First Foundling Asylum. (Ger.) 
Boarding School for Girls. Shanghai. (Cong., now 
Pres.) 

1855. First Theological Seminary. Amoy. (Eng.) 

1856. Second Opium War. 

1858. First (Am. ) Theological Seminary. Foochow, (Cong.) 

1859. Boarding School for Girls. Foochow. (Meth.) 

1860. Treaty of Tientsin. Many privileges granted for- 

eigners. 
College at Tungcho, Chihli. (Cong.) 
Boarding School for Girls. Mngpo. (Bap.) 
1862. Hospital and two Dispensaries. Peking. (Eng.) 
Mission Press. Foochow. (Meth.) 
Girls' Boarding School. Hongkong. (Eng.) Long- 

heu. (Ger.) 

1864. Bridgman School for Girls. Peking. (Cong.) 

1865. China Inland Mission. 

1866. Telegraph from Peking to outside world. 
College Tungchow, Shantung. (Pres.) 

1867. Girls' Boarding School, Chefoo. (Pres.) 

1868. Mission Press. Peking. (Cong.) 
Hospital and Dispensary. Hankow. (Eng.) 
Girls' Boarding School. (Pres.) 

1870. Tientsin Massacre. 

James Gilmour sent to Mongolia. (Eng.) 
Girls' Boarding School. Amoy. (Dutch Ref.) 

1872. Female Seminary. Canton. (Pres.) 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 113 

1872. First Opium Refuge. Hangchow. (Eng.) 

1873. Manchuria occupied by U. P. Church, Scotland. 
First woman physician appointed to China. (Meth.) 

1874. First Anti-Foot-Binding Association. Amoy. (Eng.) 
First Bible Women's Training School. Swatow. 

(Bap.) 

1875. Girls' Boarding School. Kiukiang. (Meth.) 
Hospital and Dispensary. Mngpo. (Bap.) 

1876. Railroad opened, Shanghai, and four new ports. 
Girls' Boarding School. Amoy. (Eng.) 

1877. Hospital and two Dispensaries for Women and Chil- 

dren. Foochow. (Meth.) 
Shanghai Conference. Educational Association of 

China formed at Tientsin. 
Bible Women's Training School. Peking. (Meth.) 

1878. Great famine. 

Women's Hospital and Dispensary. Wuchang. 
(Epis.) 

1879. St. John's College. Shanghai. (Epis.) 
College at Soochow. (Southern Meth.) 

1880-1890. Opium Refuges in thirty-one different places. 

Schools of various kinds for girls in nineteen different 

places. 
Hospitals and Dispensaries for women in fourteen 

different places. 

1880. First Woman's Hospital built at Tientsin. 

1881. Viceroy's Hospital built at Tientsin. 
Anglo-Chinese College. Foochow. (Meth.) 

1882. Shansi Mission opened. 

1884. Beginning of Industrial Institutions. 
Famous " Cambridge Band" organized. 

1885. Seamen's Institute. Hongkong. (Eng.) 

1886. Christian College. Canton. 

American Student Volunteer Association formed. 
Medical Missionary Association of China formed at 
Shanghai. 

1887. First schools for the blind. Canton, Peking, and 

Hankow. 
Children's Home. Amoy. (Eng.) 



114 BEX CHBISTUS 

1888. First school for deaf mutes. Chefoo. (Pros.) 
University at Nanking. (Meth.) 
Victoria Home and Orphanage. Hongkong. (Eng.) 
1890-1900. Opium Refuges in seventeen different places. 

Schools of various kinds for girls in thirty-six differ- 
ent places. 
Hospitals and Dispensaries for women in thirty dif- 
ferent places. 

1890. Door of Hope (rescue work). Shanghai. 
Second Shanghai Conference. 

First Leper Asylum. Pakhoi. (Eng.) 
North China College. Tungcho. (Cong.) 
Foundling Asylum. Kucheng. To rescue girl infants 
sentenced to death by parents. (Eng.) 

1891. Peking University opened. 

1892. British Student Volunteer Union. 

Hussey Orphanage and Infirmary. Nanking. 
(Friends.) 

1893. Foochow College. (Cong.) 
Anti-Foot-Binding Society. Ningpo. 

1894. First kindergartens in China. 
Empress presented with New Testament. 
Natural Foot leagues. Chungking and Shanghai. 

1895. China-Japan Treaty. 

1896. Railroad opened, Tientsin. 
Scandinavian Volunteer movement. 
Orphanage at Hinghua. (Meth.) 
Presbyterian College. Hangchow. 

1898. Emperor's Reform Edicts. "Young China" party. 
Anti-Foot-Binding Society. Nanking. 

Girls' College. Foochow. (Cong.) 
Anglo-Chinese College. Amoy. 

1899. Rise of the Boxers. 

1900. The Great Persecution. 

1902. First Medical College for Women. Canton. (Pres.) 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 115 



SIGNIFICANT SENTENCES 

The grip of the outer world has tightened round China. 
It will either strangle her or galvanize her into fresh life. 

D. C. BOULGER. 

Three empires fill the vision of the future — the United 
States, Russia, and China. — William Speer. 

Topsy-turvy Ways in China 

They mount a horse on the right side instead of the 
left ; the old men play marbles and fly kites, while chil- 
dren look gravely on ; they shake hands with themselves 
instead of with each other ; what we call the surname is 
written first and the other name afterward ; they whiten 
their shoes instead of blacking- them ; a coffin is a very 
acceptable present to a rich parent in good health ; in 
the north they sail and pull their wheelbarrows in place 
of merely pushing them ; and candlesticks fit into the 
candle instead of the candle fitting into the candlestick, 
and so on. . . . China is a country where the roses have 
no scent and the women no petticoats ; where the laborer 
has no Sabbath day of rest and the magistrate no sense 
of honor; where the roads have no carriages and the 
ships have no keels ; where the needle points to the south, 
the place of honor is on the left hand, and the seat of 
intellect is supposed to lie in the stomach ; where it is 
rude to take off your hat, and to wear white clothes is 
to go into mourning. Can one be astonished to find a 
literature without an alphabet and a language without 
a grammar? — Temple Bar. 

The Opium Curse 

Assuredly it is not foreign intercourse that is ruining 
China, but this dreadful poison. . . . Opium has spread 
with frightful rapidity and heart-rending results through 



116 BEX CHBISTUS 

the provinces. Millions upon millions have been struck 
down by the plague. To-day it is running like wildfire. 
In its swift, deadly course it is spreading devastation 
everywhere, wrecking the minds and eating away the 
strength and wealth of its victims. The ruin of the 
mind is the most woful of its many deleterious effects. 
The poison enfeebles the will, saps the strength of the 
body, renders the consumer incapable of performing his 
regular duties, and unfit for travel from one place to 
another. It consumes his substance and reduces the 
miserable wretch to poverty, barrenness, and senility. . . . 
Many thoughtful Chinese are apprehensive that opium 
will finally extirpate the race, and efforts are being made 
to mitigate the curse. 

— Chang Chihtung, in " China's Only Hope." 

The Point of Yiew 

A Chinese resident in America is said to have written 
home to his friends a letter from which the following 
extract is taken : " What is queerer still, men will stroll 
out in company with their wives in broad daylight with- 
out a blush. And will you believe that men and women 
take hold of each other's hands by way of salutation? 
Oh, I have seen it myself more than once. Not only 
that, but they sit down at table together ; and the women 
are served first, reversing the order of nature. After all, 
what can you expect of folk who have been brought up 
in barbarous countries on the very verge of the world? 
They have not been taught the maxims of our sages; 
they never heard of the Eites ; how can they know what 
good m^anners mean? We often think them rude and 
insolent when I'm sure they don't mean it : they're igno- 
rant, that's all." 

Chinese Curiosity 

It would reward an Alma-Tadema to depict the Chinese 
dandies filling all its many balconies, pale and silken 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 117 

clad, craning their necks to see, and by the haughtiness 
of their gaze recalling the decadent Romans of the last 
days of the empire. Their silken garments, their arched 
mouths, the coldness of their icy stare, have not yet been 
duly depicted. . . . The Chinaman may be apparently 
Indian-like in his stolid manner, but the Chinese woman 
is not. She is devoured by cariosity. The women flock 
around, and beg me to take off my gloves and my hat, 
that they may see how my hair is done, and the color of 
my hands. Then some old woman is sm-e to squeeze my 
feet, to see if there is really a foot filling up all those big 
boots ; for, of course, all the women here have small feet ; 
that is, they have them bandaged up, and astonishingly 
well they get along upon their hoof-like feet. They are 
very friendly, and bring out chairs and benches before 
their cottage doors and beg us to sit down, and offer us 
tea, or, if they have not got that ready, hot water. But 
the children cry with terror if I touch them or go too 
near ; and one little boy, in a school we went into, simply 
trembled with fear all the time I stood near him to hear 
him read. — Mrs. Archibald Little. 

"We do not lack either men of intellect or brilliant 
talents, capable of learning and doing anything they 
please, but their movements have hitherto been hampered 
by old prejudices. — Emperor Kuaxg Hsii. 

THEMES FOR STUDY OR DISCUSSI0:N" 

I. The Opium Habit and Other Elements of Weak- 
ness in Chinese Character. 
n. Elements of Strength in Personal and National 

Life. 
III. Poverty and Industry of the Chinese. 
lY. Lack of Privacy and Love of ^N'oise. 
V. Marriage and Mortuary Customs. 
VI. What the Chinese Eat and Drink. 



118 BEX CHRISTUS 

VII. Inconveniences of Travel in Far Cathay. 

VIII. Doctoring in China. 

IX. How Women are Handicapped. 

X. Infanticide and Footbinding. 

XL " Chinese " Gordon and the T'ai P'ing Rebellion. 

XH. Some Epoch-making Treaties. 

BOOKS OF eefere:n^ce 

General References as before 

Ball's " Things Chinese." I, II, VI, IX. 

Bishop's " The Yangtze Valley and Beyond." I, IV, VI, 

VII, IX, X. 
Bryson's "John Kenneth Mackenzie." VIII. 
" Chinese Empire " (Rand, McNally & Co., 1900). IX, X. 
Colquhoun's " China in Transformation." II, XI, XIL 
Coltman's " The Chinese." VIII, IX. 
Douglas's " Society in China." V, VI, VII, IX, X. 
Dukes's "Everyday Life in China." V. 
Edkins's " Religion in China." XL 
Gilmour's " Among the Mongols." VI, VHI, IX. 
Graves's " Forty Years in China." I, II. 
Gray's " China." I, II, V, VI, IX. 
Guinness's " In the Far East." VII, IX. 
Hake's " Story of Chinese Gordon." XL 
Henry's " Ling-nam, or Interior Views of South China." 

IX, X. 
Hue's " Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China." Ill, IV, 

V, VII. 
Johnston's " China and Its Future." XL 
Lockhart's " Medical Missionary of China." VHI. 
Nevius's " China and the Chinese." HI, IV, VI, IX, X. 
Oliphant's " Lord Elgin's Mission to China and Japan." 

XH. 
Robson's " Griffith John." XL 
Talmage's " Forty Years in South China." X. 
Williamson's " Old Highways in China." IX. 



THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 119 

Articles on China in Periodicals : — 

Century, Vol. 3, " General Charles George Gordon." XI. 
Eclectic, Vol. 95, " Romance of Chinese Social Life." I, II. 
Forum, Vol. 28, " Chinese Daily Life." Ill, IV, VL 
Harper, Vol. 59, " Last of the Tai Ping Rebellion." XL 
Living Age, Vols. 121 and 122, "Manners and Customs in 

China." I, II, V. 
Popular Science, Vols. 33 and 34, " Chinese Marriage and 

Funeral Customs." V. 



CHAPTER IV 

CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. PART I 

From Ea7die8t Times till near the Close of the 
Nineteenth Century 

At what time Christianity was first brought 
to the Chinese Empire it is perhaps not possible 
with certainty to determine. The traditions 
of the churcli and scattered notices in various 
writers " lead to the belief that not many years 
elapsed after the times of the apostles, before 
the sound of the gospel was heard in China and 
Chin-India." Those who desire to collect the 
traces of these early missions will find full (but 
not entirely uncritical) references to them in 
the writings of the Abbe Hue. Relative cer- 
tainty begins with the record of the arrival of 
the Nestorians, which it is supposed occurred 
505 A.D. Nestorius was a monk, and later a 
presbyter in Antioch, and after the year 428 
patriarch of Constantinople. He soon became 
involved in a controversy in respect to the 
nature of the union of the human and divine 
in the person of Christ, and he and his ad- 
herents were eventually banished from the 
Roman Empire. Some time after this he died, 

120 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 121 

no one knows where or when. His adherents 
found an asylum in the kingdom of Persia, 
whence they probably came to China. The 
only record yet found of the presence of this 
form of Christianity in China is the famous 
Nestorian Tablet, which was discovered in Si 
Ngan Fu in the year 1625, by workmen engaged 
in making excavations for the building of a 
house. There is no longer room for the small- 
est doubt in regard to the genuineness of this 
wonderful relic of the past, the date of which 
is the year 781, contemporaneous with the semi- 
anarchic condition of England, in the generation 
following the death of "the Venerable Bede," 
and the struggles between the kingdom of Mer- 
cia and the West Saxons. 

The history of the Nestorian church in China 
contains both an encouragement and a warning. 
Among a people who, like the Chinese, revere 
the past because it is the past, the Nestorian 
Tablet is a convincing witness of the antiquity 
of the Chinese faith, and of its triumphs during 
one of the most splendid dynasties. 

Roman Catholic Missions 

The first effort by Romanists of the medi- 
aeval period was made by John, called Monte 
Corvino, from the name of a small village near 
Salerno, where he was born. He was sent by 
way of India on a mission to the Tartars, reach- 
ing China in 1291, at the time when the famous 



122 BEX CHBISTUS 

Kublai Khan was emperor. In 1307 this zeal- 
ous missionary was to be reinforced by seven 
Franciscan monks, who were made bishops in 
advance of their departure, Corvino being ap- 
pointed archbishop of Peking. Three of the 
seven died of fatigue on the Avay, one returned 
to Europe, and the other three did not reach 
their destination until 1308. The subsequent 
history of this wonderful movement resembles 
the course of those rivers which, flowing through 
desert wastes, are lost in the sand. Corvino 
died at a great age after a life of incredible 
toil. Other faithful and laborious men suc- 
ceeded him, but the Mongol dynasty soon ran 
its short life, and the empire was once more in 
confusion. The Mings, who succeeded to the 
throne, endeavored to put a stop to all commu- 
nication with foreign lands, and the Christians 
were persecuted and slain. So completely were 
the traces of the past effaced that it was long 
forgotten that Christianity had ever entered 
the Celestial Empire at all. 

The second period of Koman Catholic mis- 
sions is separated from the first by a long inter- 
val of silence. The great Xavier died on the 
island of St. Johns (Sancian) toward the close 
of 1552, after heroic and unavailing efforts to 
obtain an entrance to the hermetically sealed 
empire. Valignani, the Superior of their mis- 
sions in the East, did not, however, abandon the 
apparently hopeless enterprise, but appointed to 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 123 

it a Neapolitan Jesuit named Roger, who was 
soon joined by another Italian whose brilliant 
career in China has perhaps never been equalled 
by any other missionary in any land, Matthew 
Ricci. They effected an entrance into the prov- 
ince of Kuang-tung in 1582, disguising their 
object and adopting the garb of Buddhist priests, 
which twelve years later was wisely exchanged 
for that of the literati. The next one and 
twenty years were occupied with adventures 
more romantic than mere fiction, in incessant 
efforts to reach the capital of the empire, Peking. 
Of these remarkable experiences and triumphs 
we have full contemporary accounts, which 
have been invested with still greater interest 
by the pains taken to set them forth in the vol- 
umes of the Abbe Hue (" History of Christian- 
ity in China," etc.). 

No detailed mention can be made of the liter- 
ary, scientific, and miscellaneous labors of Ricci, 
nor of the work of other distinguished pioneers. 
The Jesuits achieved notable triumphs, then 
came a reaction due to a variety of causes, and 
finally an edict whereby " all missionaries not 
required at Peking for scientific purposes were 
ordered to leave the country." In 1747 severe 
persecutions extended all over China. Many 
foreigners and converts during this stormy 
period " suffered death, torture, imprisonment, 
and banishment." The behavior of the Catho- 
lic Christians during this trying century and a 



124 BEX CRBISTUS 

quarter is the most convincing proof of the 
genuineness of their religion. No better evi- 
dence of this could have been given by converts 
anywhere under the skies. 

The Situation To-day. — During the past half- 
century the growth of the Roman Catholic 
church in China has been great, not in large 
centres only, but also in all the provinces. In a 
work by the vicar apostolic of the province of 
Che-kiang, the English translation of which 
was issued in 1897, the opinion is expressed 
that during this time the number of converts 
has doubled, but the editor confesses that he is 
unable to obtain any statistics. According to 
the vicar there are twenty -seven bishops, besides 
four districts differently organized, and probably 
three-quarters of a million Christians. Much 
larger estimates are frequently given, but it 
is uncertain upon what basis the computation 
is made, as Catholic statistics usually refer to 
families, while those of Protestant missions 
take the number of baptized communicants. 

With such different origin, methods, and 
aims, it is perhaps not surprising that Catholic 
and Protestant missionaries in China ordinarily 
meet but seldom, and have none but the most 
formal relations one with another. There are 
not only the barriers of such diverse forms of 
faith, but often also those of nationality and 
language. There is said to be but one English 
priest in China, although Germans are numer- 



CHBISTIAN MISSIONS 125 

ous, and the other nations of Europe are largely 
represented. It would be easy to append an 
extended essay upon the methods of these two 
branches of the church in China, but it is 
scarcely worth the space, and must in any case 
be unsatisfactory, from the lack of that definite 
acquaintance with many facts in regard to Roman 
Catholic missions on which either commendation 
or criticism should be based. It is certain that 
they have many faithful and loyal followers 
who have shown their faith by their works in 
times of the greatest storm and strain. It is 
equally certain that many others have but a 
superficial knowledge of Christianity, and that, 
especially since the Boxer rising was suppressed, 
multitudes have flocked to the Roman Catholic 
standard with a view to revenge. The semi- 
political management of this great ecclesiasti- 
cal organization is one of its worst features, 
another being a frequently well-marked ten- 
dency to antagonize Protestants by any and 
every means. One would gladly pass over this 
as a local and a temporary phase did facts 
admit. If the present aggressions committed 
in the name of this church in China are not 
stopped, there is every reason to fear that they 
may bring about another outbreak perhaps 
greater than the last. A frank recognition of 
this would be of the greatest service to the 
Chinese, to Protestants, and to that great 
church which, for the welfare of a great race, 



126 BEX CRRISTUS 

has endured so much persecution and suffered 
so many martyrdoms. 

Protestant Missions 

It is not easv for one ^ho lives at the besfin- 
ning of the tAventieth century to project himself 
backwa^rd intellectually, in such a way as to 
comprehend the relations then existing between 
China and the lands of the west. From the 
Chinese point of view their empire had nothing 
to gain by the visits of these unwelcome stran- 
gers from the west except that trade was pro- 
moted, an object which the mandarins professed 
to view with supreme contempt, and in regard 
to which they entertained the most fatuous 
notions. Because large cargoes of tea were 
shipped to England and to the United States, 
it was inferred that the inhabitants of these 
remote and inhospitable lands would otherwise 
have nothing to drink. Because rhubarb was 
bought in great quantities, the Chinese logically 
inferred that the digestion of the barbarians 
was of such a sort that without this di^ug they 
must inevitably die. The records of the inter- 
course between China and every one of the 
western nations which dealt with her are full 
of incidents which show how difficult it was to 
arrive at any modus vivendi whatever. The 
conceit and arrogance of the Chinese officials, 
high and low, passes belief, and it was hand- 
somely matched by the attitude of the common 



CHRISTIAN MISSION'S 127 

people, who took no pains to conceal their open 
contempt for the red-haired, blue-eyed monsters 
who forced themselves upon them year by year, 
and who year by year became a more and more 
difficult problem. 

In order to incommode the court at Peking 
as little as possible, the merchants were assigned 
to Canton as their only port ; and in order the 
better to control them, they were penned up on 
an insignificant strip of land which would with 
difficulty afford pasturage for one or two ambi- 
tious cows. These were the famous "factories," 
with a tiny space upon which alone the inmates, 
who were virtual prisoners awaiting their tickets 
of leave, could take that exercise, the object of 
which was to the Chinese of that day, as it has 
been to the Chinese ever since, an insoluble 
riddle. Yet under even these restrictions and 
incessant humiliations trade flourished, and 
then, as too often now, trade had rights which 
outweighed all other human interests. Perhaps 
there never was a more typical illustration of 
the familiar aphorism that corporations have no 
souls than the career of the British East India 
Company, both in India and in China. In the 
former land they deported those who came with 
the tidings of salvation, for the reason that the 
knowledge of such an errand would not improb- 
ably be attended with political troubles, and 
political troubles would lead to irregularities 
which might involve the loss of the sacred 



128 RHX CHBISTUS 

Trade, which was in reality the idol before 
which " The Company " bowed, and which alone 
it worshipped. Like others in different parts 
of the world since, they were in the China trade 
"for what there was in it," and for notliing 
else. 

The Pioneer Society. — Modern missionary 
work in China is naturally divisible into four 
distinct periods, each terminated by a foreign 
war. The iirst period covers the years between 
1807 and 1842. Thus we see that it was not 
until the close of the eighteenth century that the 
conscience of Protestant Christendom became 
sufficiently enlightened to contemplate the pos- 
sibility of endeavoring to do its age-long duty 
by its fellow-men at the ends of the earth. 
The beginnings of this enterprise were every- 
where conducted under difficulties and against 
opposition such as we cannot now fully compre- 
hend. The faith which could not only rise 
against these hindrances, but could at the same 
time do the work of the church abroad while 
keeping its missionary fires alight at home, is 
nothing less than sublime. The cry of Vali- 
gnani, the successor of Xavier, as he viewed from 
a distance Chinese mountains dimly defined, is 
said to have been : " O mighty fortress, when 
shall these impenetrable gates of thine be broken 
through?" 

It is to the London Missionary Society that 
belongs the honor of first undertaking a Protes- 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 129 

tant mission to the dense population of China, 
under conditions which indeed promised but 
little, and which might well have given pause to 
any but those animated by the most burning 
zeal. The first missionary was Robert Morrison, 
a Northumbrian lad born in 1782, who spent 
his youth at Newcastle-on-Tyne employed at 
manual labor for twelve or fourteen hours a 
day, yet seldom failing to find one or two hours 
for reading and meditation. Even at work his 
Bible or some other book was usually open 
before him. He was not able to obtain many 
books, but such as he could get he read and 
re-read with great avidity, a sure sign of 
an intellectual appetite certain to lead to 
future results. It is interesting to know that 
neither his father nor his relatives could for 
some time be induced to look with favor upon 
his desire to become a minister, much less his 
wild plan for missionary work abroad. He had 
prepared for the divinity school at Hoxton by 
studying between seven at night and six in the 
morning, during the daytime making boot-trees. 
He began the study of the Chinese language in 
London, with a Chinese who happened to be in 
the country. It was vain to expect a passage 
in the ships of the East India Company, so 
Morrison sailed for New York, where he spent 
some weeks, leaving for China armed with a 
letter from James Madison, Secretary of State, 
to the American consul at Canton, where he 



130 BEX CRBISTUS 

lived for a year in the factory of some New York 
mercliants. Although the foreigners both in 
Macao and in Canton were outwardly friendly, 
Morrison's position was one of extreme delicacy 
and difficulty. Even a footing on Chinese soil 
seemed unattainable, and the limitations under 
which he labored were most disheartening. He 
was the constant victim of that observation with- 
out sympathy which Mrs. Browning defined as 
torture. For a Chinese to teach the language to 
foreigners was to subject himself to the penalty 
of death, and almost all the helps to the acquire- 
ment of the intricate maze of hieroglyphs were 
at that time lacking. Morrison lived, as we 
have seen, with the Americans and passed for 
one, as they were less disliked than the English. 
But his position was precarious in the extreme, 
and in less than a year, in company with all the 
other British, he was driven by political dis- 
turbances to Macao, where he fared ill. 

In 1809 he found, however, a double relief. 
He was married to the daughter of an English 
resident in Canton, and he was engaged by the 
East India Company as Chinese translator at a 
salary of X250 per annum. This gave him 
a definite status and was an aid rather than a 
hindrance to the prosecution of his mission, as 
his translation work assisted him in the study 
of the language and increased his opportu- 
nities for intercourse with the Chinese. His 
life was often endangered by pirates. There 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 131 

was in Canton little congenial society, neither 
the English nor the American residents having 
any interest in his work or any belief in it. 
His first child, a boy, died at its birth, and the 
Chinese objected to its burial. His wife was 
dangerously ill. His faith and courage were 
strained to the breaking-point, but he plodded 
on at his grammar and his dictionary, foun- 
dation works of inestimable value to later 
students. The grammar was finished in 1812, 
sent to Bengal for printing, and never heard of 
for three years, coming forth at last to be highly 
appreciated. Morrison printed a tract and a 
catechism, translated the Acts and the gospel 
of Luke, a copy of which was burned by the 
Roman Catholic bishop of Macao as a heretical 
work. The publication of these books produced 
a storm of opposition from the Chinese. A 
special proclamation was issued against him, and 
those who had assisted him were warned that 
the penalty was death. 

A True Yokefellow. — Just at this juncture 
the Society sent out Rev. Robert Milne and 
his wife to join the Morrisons, who arrived in 
July, 1813, but in less than a fortnight the 
Portuguese governor expelled them from Macao, 
no assistance being given by the English resi- 
dents lest their trade should be prejudiced. 
At this critical period, when it was necessary to 
try new ways, Milne was admirably adapted to be 
Morrison's associate. He devoted himself with 



132 BEX CHRISTU3 

great zeal to the study of the language, restrain- 
ing as he could his impatience to be at work. 
He was the author of the oft-quoted saying 
that " to acquire the Chinese is a work for men 
with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of oak, 
hands of spring-steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of 
the apostles, memories of angels, and lives of 
Methuselah ! " 

By the end of 1813 the whole New Testament 
had been translated, — considering the circum- 
stances and the difficulties a gigantic achieve- 
ment. It was agreed to search for a place in 
the East India islands or the Malay peninsula 
where the headquarters of the mission might 
be established, and where Chinese might be 
trained who could enter China without attract- 
ing that suspicion which was inseparable from 
foreigners. Milne spent seven or eight months 
in prospecting in Java and Malacca, which was 
selected as the coign of vantage from which 
to move China. In the same year Morrison 
baptized his first convert at a spring issuing 
from the foot of a hill, away from human 
observation. The East India Company under- 
took the cost of printing Morrison's Chinese 
dictionary, upon which they spent £10,000. 
Mrs. Morrison was ordered to England with her 
children, returning to China six years later, only 
to die. Milne established himself at Malacca, 
where the difficulties were different from those 
in China, though not less formidable. He had 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 133 

made remarkable progress in Chinese, and aided 
in the translation of the Bible and other works. 
Morrison was sent on an embassy to Peking- 
with Lord Amherst, an enterprise which failed, 
owing to the arrogance of the Chinese, but the 
experience was invaluable to him. 

Strong Foundations Laid. — The establishment 
at Malacca of an Anglo- Chinese college was the 
next great step, and one in which Morrison 
endeavored to interest friends at home. The 
proposal was warmly taken up and Milne was 
made president. In a report on the condition 
of Malacca this institution was highly praised 
by a member of Parliament for its thoroughl}^ 
sound and efiicient work. Reinforcements were 
now sent out to this "Ultra-Ganges mission." 
A magazine called the Crleaner was issued. 
The presses poured forth pamphlets, tracts, and 
gospels, both in Malay and in Chinese. Schools 
were founded, but the people were ignorant and 
listless. The converts were far from satisfac- 
tory. Mrs. Morrison and Mrs. Milne had both 
died, and Mr. Milne himself followed in 1822, 
after eleven 5^ears of most fruitful service. One 
of his tracts, the " Two Friends," has had a wider 
circulation perhaps than almost any other Chi- 
nese publication, and, what is more remarkable, 
was recently shown, by a formal note of the mis- 
sionaries scattered all over China, to be still one 
of the most popular. 

Mr. Morrison visited England in 1824-1825, 



134 SEX CHBISTUS 

where he was again married. He was received 
with great demonstrations of respect, present- 
ing his Chinese Bible to King George IV. He 
returned in 1826 to fall upon stormy times. The 
relations between China and Great Britain were 
becoming greatly strained. As a prophecy of 
the coming and inevitable war the political ba- 
rometer was continually falling. The external 
issue of the conflict when it came was a demand 
from the Chinese for the surrender of some nine 
million dollars' worth of opium, but the real 
question was the rights of intercourse between 
other nations and China. In 1833 the Roman 
Catholics attacked Dr. Morrison, securing the 
suppression of his presses and his publications. 
The monopoly of the East India Company was 
abolished and Dr. Morrison's connection with it 
ceased. He died in June, 1834, after twenty- 
seven years of as laborious and fruitful effort as 
were ever spent by any missionary that ever 
penetrated the Celestial Empire. This early 
work is a microcosm in which may be discerned 
the roots of all that has since been accomplished 
in the Land of Sinim. Dr. Morrison published 
more than thirty different works, one of which 
was his monumental dictionary in six quarto 
volumes. Of the Bible, twenty-six Old Testa- 
ment books were translated by him, and the 
remainder by Dr. Milne under his colleague's 
supervision. Dr. Morrison's best known con- 
vert, Liang A-fa, was a useful and a successful 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 135 

evangelist who suffered much for his faith and 
died in 1855. He was the author of a variety 
of widely circulated tracts, one of which gained 
great celebrity, because from it Hung Hsiu- 
ch'uan, who subsequently started the great T'ai 
P'ing Rebellion, gained his first knowledge of 
Christianity. 

Among the reinforcements sent to the Malacca 
mission was Dr. W. H. Medhurst, who arrived 
in 1817, where he labored most industriously 
for many years. After the death of Dr. Mor- 
rison he visited Canton and made a voyage of 
observation along the coast of China as far as 
northeastern Shantung. After the war with 
China he lived for thirteen years in Shanghai, 
where also he was indefatigable. He was the 
first to issue a Christian trimetrical classic on 
the plan of the Chinese text-book. His publi- 
cations in Chinese, in Malay, and in English 
were more than ninety in number, one of which 
was a Chinese and English dictionary in two 
octavo volumes. The lives of the trio men- 
tioned, like those of the great Indian three — 
Carey, Marshman, and Ward, — serve to illus- 
trate the mysterious fact that the pioneers of 
missions are often the ablest workers, whom it 
is difficult to equal and impossible to surpass. 

Arrival of Americans 

It was appropriate that the earliest mission- 
aries from the United States should have been 



136 BEX CHBISTUS 

sent bj the oldest American society, the Ameri- 
can Board, founded in 1810, "fifteen years later 
than the London Missionary Society. The at- 
tention of the Board was first called to China 
by a Christian merchant, Mr. Olyphant, then 
living at Canton. His vessels were always open 
and free to missionaries. One of them, named 
the 3Iorrison, of four hundred tons — a large 
vessel for those times — was almost a missionary 
ship. The first recruits were Rev. E. C. Bridg- 
man and Rev. David Abeel, who arrived Feb- 
ruary, 1830. The former was soon a secretary 
of one of the earliest organized efforts to en- 
lighten the Chinese, called the Society for the 
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in China, which 
dates from 183-4, and which, within recent years, 
has a modern successor in Shanghai of great 
influence and importance. Mr. Bridgman was 
also one of the originators of the Morrison 
Education Society, another fruitful seed in the 
early soil. In 1832 he began the publication 
of the Chinese Repository^ consisting of papers 
on subjects of interest and value to those wish- 
ing to comprehend China. It was issued monthly 
for twenty years under his editorship and that 
of Dr. Williams, and contains a history of for- 
eign intercourse and missions during that time. 
It is now very scarce. Mr. Bridgman was a 
prominent member of the Committee of Dele- 
gates in Shanghai to translate the New Testa- 
ment, and later the Old Testament. Samuel 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 137 

Wells Williams, who was appointed printer to 
the American Board mission in 1832, was one 
of those men not infrequently to be met with in 
the mission field who are endowed with untir- 
ing industry, great versatility, and an unusual 
talent both for acquiring and for imparting 
knowledge. He was one of a party to convey a 
number of shipwrecked Japanese back to their 
land in the year 1837. Though the enterprise 
failed, it was useful in giving that experience 
which fitted Dr. Williams to be interpreter for 
an American expedition to Japan in 1853, and 
again with Commodore Perry in 1854. From 
1856 he was secretary of the United States 
Legation, and took an important part in the 
negotiation of the treaty of 1859 and of the 
year following. His greatest work was his 
*' Middle Kingdom," in two volumes, published 
in 1848 and entirely recast in 1883, which is a 
standard authority on everything relating to 
China. Another important contribution to the 
study of China was his syllabic dictionary, 
published in 1874. 

Beginning of Medical Work. — The name of 
Dr. Peter Parker is inseparably linked with the 
early stages of medical work for the Chinese, 
which has always been so great an aid in over- 
coming their hostility to foreigners. His first 
hospital was opened in the Chinese quarter of 
Singapore in the year 1834. A year later it 
was transferred to Canton, special attention 



138 REX CHBISTUS 

being given to diseases of the eye and to sur- 
gical cases. Dr. Morrison had also been con- 
nected with a similar enterprise in 1820, and 
Dr. Colledge of the East India Company opened 
a dispensary at his own expense in 1837, which 
lasted for five years and was very successful. 
Dr. Parker's work began Nov. 4, 1835, and 
while at first the object of much suspicion on 
the part of the Chinese, soon attracted wide 
notice for its wonderful cures in all ranks of 
society, and elicited many touching expressions 
of gratitude. This enterprise so favorably begun 
has been carried on ever since, and was the pat- 
tern of many others since established. The 
influence of Dr. Parker's medical work led to 
the formation in 1838 of the Medical Missionary 
Society, a pioneer in a field now much more fully 
explored. Dr. Hobson of the London Society con- 
ducted a separate hospital in Canton from 1846 
to 1856. He was the author of many tracts and 
of several medical works in Chinese. He was 
associated with another man of mark. Dr. Wil- 
liam Lockhart, who had a long and varied ex- 
perience in southern, central, and northern China, 
and whose volume called "The Medical Mis- 
sionary in China " was one of the earliest and is 
still one of the best presentations of its subject. 

The Second Period, 1842 to 1860 

The outcome of the struggle with Great 
Britain was that China was compelled to yield 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 139* 

everything claimed, and as we have already 
seen, in addition to Canton, which had been 
little more than a prison-house for merchants, 
the ports of Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shang-^ 
hai were definitely opened, and consuls were 
appointed to each of them. International re- 
lations were thus constituted, and with it, as 
a bitter accompaniment, exterritoriality, — an- 
imperative necessity in the case of an Oriental 
government like China, but not the less galling" 
to its pride. Now that Great Britain had pre- 
pared the way, Belgium, France, Holland, Por- 
tugal, Prussia, Spain, and the United States 
hastened to send embassies and to make treaties. 
Hongkong was ceded to the British, and a small 
and barren rock of "rotten granite " was, by the- 
magic touch of good government and commer- 
cial enterprise, converted into one of the most 
important ports of the world. There was an 
enormous expansion of business in every direc- 
tion, yet no one was satisfied, for the British 
public, at least, had persuaded itself that now" 
that China was " opened," her people would. 
desire Occidental civilization. Thither accord- 
ingly were sent great and futile shipments of 
knives, forks, stockings, and pianos ! The 
Chinese officials had been demonstrated to be 
but men of straw, and a British consul, Mr. 
T. T. Meadows, perhaps the most philosophical 
of the many writers on China, considered that 
this itself was one of the chief predisposing 



140 BEX CHBISTUS 

causes of the great T'ai P'ing Rebellion, which 
for half a generation, like a slow-moving but 
irresistible lava-flow, devastated more than half 
the empire. 

The effect of the new conditions was as 
much appreciated bj the body of missionaries 
as by the merchants. When Morrison died in 
Canton, in 1834, the prospect of the extension 
of the evangelistic work, as Dr. Williams re- 
minds us, was nearly as dark as when he landed. 
Only three assistants had come to his help, so 
that when the first American missionaries ar- 
rived, at the expiration of twenty-three years 
of toil, he was again quite alone. Within the 
period closing with the treaty of Nanking, about 
fifty missionaries had been sent from Europe 
and America, either to China or to the Chinese 
settlements in Java, Siam, and the Straits ; but 
owing to the fluctuating nature of these immi- 
grants and to other causes, none of these mis- 
sions had taken root. They were now almost 
entirely abandoned for work in China itself. 
The converts there had been but few, and at 
the close of the war it is said that they might 
have all been counted on the fingers of one 
hand. 

Splendid Reinforcements. — Without descend- 
ing into detail, a few words may suffice to indi- 
cate the nature of the great forward movement 
which took place in China after the war. The 
American Presbyterian mission began to work 



CHBISTIAN MISSIONS 141 

in Canton in 1842, followed two years later by 
the American Southern Baptist mission. Two 
German missions, the Rhenish and the Basel, 
entered the Kuangtung province in 1847. They 
met with phenomenal difficulties and discour- 
agements, yet persevered in their work. One 
mission was largely for the native Cantonese 
and the other for the Hakkas, a race of former 
immigrants from central China. It is note- 
worthy that one of their best men tried for 
many years to establish himself in the ^dcinity 
of Swatow, but failed ; yet that region later 
became the headquarters of a conspicuously suc- 
cessful work by the American Baptists, under 
the lead of Dr. Ashmore (now a veteran of 
more than fifty years' standing), and by the 
English Presbyterians, led by Rev. William C. 
Burns, one of the best-known missionaries of 
this period by reason of his evangelistic spirit, 
his extraordinary command of many dialects, his 
sweet hymns, and his unequalled translation of 
the " Pilgrim's Progress " into the mandarin col- 
loquial. He also opened the work of the same 
society at Amoy, where the London society was 
represented by the Stronach brothers, who came 
from Peking and Singapore. They devoted 
themselves with great ardor to street preach- 
ing, one of them learning by heart large portions 
of the Chinese classics, so that when attacked 
by Chinese scholars they always found more 
than their match. The work of the American 



142 BEX CHEISTUS 

Board at this port was subsequently transferred 
to the American Reformed mission. All three 
of these missions expanded into large propor- 
tions, and the entire history of their develop- 
ment is a study in the wise and efficient union 
of faith and works. The phenomenal measure 
of union here attained was wholly due to the 
missionaries on the field, and not to the societies 
at home, making another object-lesson in the 
conduct of missions. 

In Foochow the American Board mission 
and that of the American Methodists were each 
begun in 1847, followed three years later by the 
Church Missionary Society of England. Each 
of these has grown to large results, attained 
after long seed-sowing and patient, prayerful 
waiting. In the case of the Church mission it 
was eleven years before the first converts were 
gained, and in the others almost as long. 

Ningpo was occupied by the American Baptist 
mission in 1843, the American Presbyterian mis- 
sion following the next year, and the Church mis- 
sion in 1848, in each case with expansion in due 
season similar to that just mentioned. In the 
rising port of Shanghai the London mission was 
begun by Dr. Medhurst and Dr. Lockhart pre- 
viously referred to, followed soon after by Mr. 
Muirhead, who lived to complete, and more than 
complete, fifty years of arduous and unusually 
varied and efficient service. The American 
Protestant Episcopal Board, under the lead of 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 143 

Dr. Boone and a party of nine recruits, followed 
in 1845 ; the American Southern Baptists, with 
whom the names of Dr. and Mrs. Yates will al- 
ways be identified, in 1847 ; and the American 
Presbyterian mission in 1850, where their evan- 
gelistic labors have been admirably matched by 
the establishment and conduct of one of the 
largest and best mission presses in the world. 
The American Southern Methodist mission 
(1848) has also done a great work, especially 
for education of varied grades. 

Many other incipient movements date from 
this period of preparation. It was a time of 
restriction, with possibilities of future develop- 
ments rather than of actual expansion. For- 
eigners were limited to a thirty -mile radius in 
their excursions from the treaty ports. The 
occupation of a large part of the interior by the 
T'ai P'ing rebels made travelling dangerous ; 
and though many bold and brave missionaries 
adventured their lives in the camp of the leader, 
who successfully established himself at Nanking 
in 1852, it became more and more evident that 
nothing really reformatory was to be expected 
from these " Kings," with their blasphemous 
assumptions. Fifty years from the beginning 
of Protestant missions it was estimated by some 
that the number of converts was not more than 
one hundred, although others place the figures 
much higher. Yet important beginnings had 
everywhere been made. The medical work 



144 BEX CHBISTU8 

was a great blessing in Canton, in Shanghai, 
and wherever else it was practicable. The thin 
end of the missionary educational wedge began 
to be inserted in the yawning rifts of Chinese 
ignorance and prejudice, and was driven home 
with sturdy blows. 

Translation of the Scriptures. — Mention has 
already been made of the significant fact that 
the very first Protestant missionaries translated 
the whole Bible into Chinese, an enterprise which, 
so far as is known, the Roman Catholics with their 
start of many hundred years never undertook. 
The revision of the earlier translation was ar- 
ranged for immediately after the close of the 
war of 1842, by a general conference at Hong- 
kong the next year. The committee consisted 
of Rev. Messrs. Medhurst, J. Stronach, and 
Milne, from the London society, and Rev. 
Messrs. Bridgman, Boone, Shuck, Lowrie, and 
Culbertson, from American societies. The New 
Testament was finished in 1850, the Old Testa- 
ment in 1853, and another version in a simpler 
style in 1862 by Messrs. Bridgman and Culbert- 
son. In 1865 the New Testament was also 
translated into the mandarin dialect by Messrs. 
Blodget, Edkins, Burdon, and Schereschewsky, 
the latter making the admirable rendering of 
the Old Testament alone. The difficulties of 
fixing upon suitable terms for such expressions 
as faith, atonement, regeneration, sanctification, 
etc., in a language like the Chinese, was very 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 145 

great. The rendering of the word *' baptize" 
proved an obstacle to unity of versions, and 
singular as it may appear to those unacquainted 
with the nature of the question, no common 
term for God could be agreed upon. Even to 
the present time, all copies of the Scriptures 
and most other Christian books, are printed in 
different editions with different terms. While 
this has been an obvious and much regretted 
evil, the injury to the mission cause has been 
far less than might be supposed, since the Chi- 
nese are familiar with great diversities of ex- 
pression for the same concept. There is now 
an increasing tendency to harmony, and within 
a few decades the controversy will have been 
forgotten. 

Treachery in Treaties. — The last four years 
of this period were witnesses of another war 
between Great Britain and China, the occasion- 
ing cause being a " lorcha " loaded with opium 
and flying the British flag. But the real diffi- 
culty was the intolerable assumptions of the 
Chinese, who had unlearned all the lessons of 
the previous contest. Treaties were signed in 
1858, but the foreign envoys committed the 
fatal mistake of leaving Tientsin, and China 
as well, by the end of the year, relieving the 
emperor from his fear of being captured and 
carried off, as the governor-general of Kuang- 
tung had been. The following year the Chin- 
ese treacherously refused to exchange the 



146 BEX CHBISTUS 

ratifications of the treaties, and drove back the 
British. This involved another war, which 
took place in 1860, with the British and French 
^s allies, resulting in the capture of Peking 
in the month of October, and supplementary- 
treaties signed at Peking. 

The Third Period, 1860 to 1895 

The close of the second war with Great 
Britain is one of the turning-points of modern 
Chinese history. The ignorant and obstinate 
Manchus and Chinese had been forced to rec- 
ognize the power of the "barbarians." The 
important right of residence in Peking was 
conceded. Many new ports were opened, each 
a large window for more light to enter the 
empire. One of the most unique events was 
the introduction into the treaties of the " toler- 
ation clause," which in the American version is 
as follows : " Art. XXIX. The principles of 
the Christian religion as professed bj the Prot- 
estant and Roman Catholic churches, are rec- 
ognized as teaching men to do good, and to do 
to others as they would have others do to 
them. Hereafter those who quietly profess 
.and teach these doctrines shall not be harassed 
or persecuted on account of their faith. Any 
person, whether citizen of the United States or 
Chinese convert, who according to these tenets 
peaceably teaches and practices the principles 
.of Christianity, shall in no case be interfered 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 147 

with or molested." Much has been written and 
said in condemnation and in praise of this 
article, the former on the ground that it was 
^' forcing our religion upon the Chinese," though 
it cannot justly be so construed. Like exterri- 
toriality, it was not perhaps quite welcome to 
the Chinese, but they made in the first instance 
no objections whatever, or it would not have 
been included, as the Ministers held no brief 
for missions. There can be little doubt that 
the treaty has been most useful to the better 
interests of all classes of Chinese. That it has 
been at times abused is likewise true, but in this 
respect this article is unfortunately not singu- 
lar. A spurious clause appended by a zealous 
Father, employed as interpreter, to the Chinese 
but not to the French version of the French 
treaty reads thus : "It is in addition per- 
mitted to French missionaries to rent and to 
purchase land in all the provinces, and to erect 
buildings thereon at pleasure." As only the 
French text is authoritative, this pious fraud 
was useless. Contrary to the common repre- 
sentations on the subject, it may be said to have 
had no relation at all to Protestant missionary 
residence in the interior. 

Evidences of a New Era. — It was in the early 
part of this period that the Chinese Imperial 
Maritime Customs service was instituted, manned 
by foreigners and furnishing an object-lesson 
in civil service, and revenues for the empire. 



148 BEX CHRISTU8 

The Burlingame mission to foreign courts was 
despatched to enable the Chinese to get their 
breath before coming into the "sisterhood of 
nations." A large party of Chinese youth was 
sent to the United States to be educated, only 
to be recalled some years later before the fruits 
were ripe. The Chinese commercial spirit 
came to self-consciousness in western ways by 
the organization of the important China Mer- 
chants' Steam Navigation Company, and in 
general it was evident that a new era had set in. 
At the declaration of peace in the autumn of 
1860 more than a hundred missionaries were 
penned up in Shanghai awaiting the second 
"opening" of China. Rev. Henry Blodget of 
the American Board was the first Protestant 
missionary to enter Tientsin immediately fol- 
lowing the British army, passing on later to 
Peking. During this period that mission, ex- 
panding into several stations, began at T'ung 
Chou the rudiments of what blossomed into a 
college and theological seminary, together with 
the usual forms of work, and a printing-press 
in Peking. Mr. Edkins of Shanghai estab- 
lished himself at Tientsin, and later at Peking, 
in each of which cities flourishing missions 
developed. The hospital work at the former 
city is associated with the names of Dr. J. K. 
McKenzie and Dr. Roberts. Dr. Lockhart, as 
already mentioned, opened a hospital in Peking, 
followed by Dr. Dudgeon and many others. 



CHBISTIAN MISSIONS 149 

Mr. Muirhead of Shanghai was able to visit 
Hankow, seven hundred miles up the Yang-tse 
River, at an early period after the treaty of 1858, 
and in 1861 Mr. Griffith John went to occupy 
what Secretary Mullens thought " the finest mis- 
sionary centre in the world." From this strategic 
point the work of the London and other societies 
has spread all over that part of the empire, 
into remote Ssuch'uan, and more lately into 
the formerly sealed province of Hunan. 

The American Presbyterian mission ex- 
panded from Shanghai into the great and 
ancient cities of Hang chow, Soochow, and Nan- 
king, and later to Peking, where its beginnings 
are linked with the name of Dr. W. A. P. 
Martin, subsequently president of the T'ung 
Wen Kuan, and of the Imperial University, au- 
thor of many important works in Chinese. In 
Shantung the same mission, beginning at Che- 
foo and Teng Chou Fu, worked westward to 
many cities, developing into two different mis- 
sions. The name of Dr. Nevius will always be 
associated with his great work in eastern Shan- 
tung. A fine college grew up under the guid. 
ing hands of Dr. C. W. Mateer and others, 
the usefulness of which is but begun. 

The Church mission opened a station in 
Peking, which was later turned over to the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (the 
Anglican mission), which now has two bishops 
over its flocks in Chihli and Shantung. 



150 BEX CHBISTUS 

The American Methodist mission, whose 
occupation of Foochow has been mentioned, 
began work in central China in 1867, and in 
Peking two years later, reaching out for vast 
distances in every direction. Their modest 
Boys' Boarding School, begun in 1878, devel- 
oped ten years later into what became the 
Peking University, with a large constituency. 
An important mission of this society in the 
far province of Ssuch'uan vras begun in 1881, 
followed for a time by violence and serious 
trouble. 

The China Inland Mission. — Even to sketch 
in the baldest outline the trickling of these 
streams which were to convey the water of life 
to widely separated parts of China would occupy 
many pages, and would, after all, convey but a 
slight impression of the real work of more than 
fifty different missionary societies which grad- 
ually overspread the land. To one of these, 
however, it is necessary to devote a little space 
on account of its unique origin, methods, and 
results. The China Inland Mission was begun 
in 1865 by Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, a physician 
who went to China under the Chinese Evan- 
gelization Society in 1853. It has always 
been distinctively a "faith mission," with no 
guaranteed salary for its workers, no personal 
solicitation of funds being authorized, "pan- 
denominational," and in its fuller development 
international. Its efforts were systematically 



CRBISTIAN MISSIONS 151 

directed, not merely to working in China but 
for the whole of the empire, especially the 
unoccupied provinces, then very numerous. Its 
plan was to begin at the capital of each prov- 
ince, although this would generally be the most 
difficult city to enter, taking the prefectural 
cities later, and the smaller ones last. Thus 
centres would be taken and held, through which 
the whole province might be influenced. The 
first stages were largely preliminary, especially 
itinerating, which was carried on sometimes 
upon a gigantic scale ; as, for example, one of 
Mr. Stevenson's journeys from Burmah to Yun- 
nan, Ssuch'uan, and thence to Shanghai, and 
back to Burmah, making in 240 days a total of 
about 7700 miles. 

One of the marked features of the growth of 
the mission has been the arrival of large rein- 
forcements at one time in answer to definite 
praj^er. In 1881 seventy-seven members of the 
mission signed an appeal for seventy additional 
workers, and in the three following years sev- 
enty-six recruits reached the field. In Novem- 
ber, 1886, a hundred new workers were asked 
for, and the whole number was sent out during 
the following year. Among the forty acces- 
sions in 1885 were the well-known " Cambridge 
band," whose arrival created a profound impres- 
sion both at home and abroad. The prayers 
for funds were answered in like manner, so that 
they have substantially kept pace with the 



152 BEX CHBISTUS 

expanding area of labor. A considerable num- 
ber of societies, especially from Scandinavian 
countries, have sent out workers as "associa-tes" 
of the Inland Mission. At the end of 1893, 
two years before the close of the period under 
consideration, this mission had 583 workers dis- 
persed through all the provinces except Kuang- 
tung and Fukien, with 131 stations, and more 
than as many churches, containing 4300 mem- 
bers. 

The policy of adopting large cities as cen- 
tres of effort has been generally followed all 
over China. The United Presbyterian church 
has a large and rapidly growing work in 
Manchuria, begun in this way, but developed 
according to providential leadings, until at 
the close of this period it had literally almost 
covered the whole land with its influence. On 
the other hand, three missions in North China, 
the London Society in Chihli, the English 
Methodist, and the American Board in Shan- 
tung, have each one station in a country village, 
from which the work expands as elsewhere, 
without the advantage of a large urban con- 
stituency, and free also from its drawbacks. 

Modus of Mission Work 

Amid wide diversities of conditions the pro- 
cesses by which the gospel is introduced in a 
new mission station bear a general family like- 
ness, and may be readily outlined. The first 



CHBI8TIAN MISSIONS 153 

requisite is a home for the missionary, and in 
securing this infinite patience and great tact 
are often indispensable, especially in the early 
stages of the work. In shrewdness at bargain- 
ing the Chinese yield nothing to either Jew or 
Gentile ; and the moment that a foreign " bar- 
barian" wishes a site it rapidly increases in 
value. The small holdings of Chinese property, 
the large families, indefinite subdivisions of 
land and dwellings, the tyranny of the aged, as 
well as of those belonging to the literary class, 
the terrorism of professional bullies, the antip- 
athy to foreigners on the part of neighbors 
and of the " gentry," the incapacity, obstinacy, 
ignorance, cunning, deceit, and open hostility 
of the local and higher officials, make this a 
task which not infrequently extends over sev- 
eral years. Only the most resolute purpose, 
backed by illimitable faith in his mission of 
enlightenment to those refusing to be enlight- 
ened, prevents discouragement and failure. 
Not all beginnings have been of this descrip- 
tion, but they are frequent and are always to 
be expected, especially in the larger cities and 
in provincial capitals. The gradual thawing 
of the icebergs of prejudice may generally be 
counted upon, but it is a slow process. The 
deeds of a moderate-sized mission compound 
would sometimes make a carpet for a large 
room, and the separate sheets resemble crazy 
patchwork in their number, each one perhaps 



154 EEX CHRISTUS 

the issue of a hotly contested and long-con- 
tinued battle. In countless instances, to other 
forms of opposition has been added that of mob 
violence, which is readily excited by subter- 
ranean means through the influence of the 
officials or the literary class. The wildest 
stories are in circulation about the extraction 
of the eyes and hearts of children for use in 
" making silver," until the whole region is wild 
with passion. It was this form of libel which 
in the first part of this period produced the 
terrible Tientsin massacre (June, 1870) in 
which twenty foreigners lost their lives, in- 
cluding a French consul. 

The Second Step. — As soon as a base of 
operations is secured, the next step is usually 
the opening of a street chapel, to which any 
and all are cordially invited. At first the 
crowd gathers automatically, but in case of 
marked opposition the place is in a manner 
boycotted, and those seen to go there may suf- 
fer for it. Roughs and rowdies may get up 
disturbances, and every day may be a crisis. 
The neighbors perhaps will not go into the 
chapel at all, and scholars are very shy of it. 
Many coolies listen to the reiteration of Chris- 
tian truth and daily remark, " This doctrine is 
all right," with not the smallest perception of 
its drift. Scholars may condescend in private 
conversation to announce the view that "this 
doctrine is practically the same as ours," only 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 155 

it is the Occidental version, whereas Confucian- 
ism is the form adapted for China. The late 
Li Hung Chang, in addressing a large company 
of friends of missions in New York, remarked 
that in his opinion Christianity and Confu- 
cianism were substantially the same, and this 
friendly and superficial notion is very prevalent. 
The Abbe Hue, in one of his volumes on " Chris- 
tianity in China," shows how for centuries the 
course of thought has run in fixed grooves. 
" Then, as now, the mandarins listened to dis- 
courses on God, the soul, and salvation, from 
mere curiosity, or as they say themselves, 'to 
amuse their hearts a little.' They were often 
even courteous enough to declare the doctrines 
perfect and unanswerable, but on going away 
resumed their habitual indifference, and became 
just as Chinese as ever." 

When audiences fail, it is not difficult to draw 
them in by singing. It is often possible to 
secure a large attendance after the shops close 
for the evening. One day a countryman drifts 
into the chapel who has come to town to sell 
his watermelons. He squanders three cash on 
a catechism which he cannot read, and disap- 
pears. The next year he reappears with two 
other men, one of whom is a scholar, and the 
remote village in which he lives is suggested as 
a good place in which to begin interior work. 
A helper being sent to it is, however, unable to 
find the place at all. " What does this fellow 



156 BEX CHBISTUS 

want of that village?" is the thought of every 
one of whom inquiry is made. When at last 
the village is found, a hopeful interest seems to 
be aroused, which goes on for some months. It 
then turns out that the scholar is an opium 
taker, and wishes to rent his premises for "a 
chapel" to the foreigner. It is a well-tried 
maxim that a missionary dates his real troubles 
from the time of the baptism of his first con- 
vert. Not all openings, however, are disap- 
pointing. Sooner or later there is a patch of 
peculiarly fertile "good ground" which brings 
forth thirty-fold, and these form spots of light 
in the midst of a gross darkness that may be 
felt. 

The Peripatetic Preacher. — Itinerating con- 
stitutes an important part of missionary work, 
particularly in the earlier stages. The mere 
sight of a foreigner is in itself an illumination 
to the rustic in the interior. Markets and fairs 
are held everywhere, often on fixed days of the 
moon, and at such times there is no difficulty in 
drawing a large audience. Book sales will help 
to confer an air of respectability to street 
preaching, for the Chinese have a profound def- 
erence for literature. Even a turbulent crowd 
will sober down when some one calls out, " See, 
he is going to sell books now ! " As a rule only 
a small percentage of the men can read, and it 
is therefore indispensable to furnish tracts and 
leaflets in a style so simple as to be readily 



CHBISTIAN MISSIONS 157 

understood of the people. The population is 
so dense, and the indifference of most of them 
to new ideas so great, that only when a district 
has been continuously visited for a long series 
of years can it be said in any real sense to 
have heard the gospel. In the accomplishment 
of this Avork colporteurs are indispensable, and 
any number of the right men could be usefully 
employed. The Chinese Christians of Canton 
organized many years since a " Book Lending 
Society," which is a unique and useful way of 
bringing Christian literature to the attention of 
local scholars, by loaning to them books to be 
returned later in good condition, and perhaps 
exchanged for others. The village school- 
master and the literary graduate thus reached 
exert an influence greater than that of scores of 
other men. Such devices ought to be in use all 
over China. 

Churches in Embryo. — As soon as the station 
is really in working order, there is almost sure 
to be opened a little day-school for boys. At 
first these are all of necessity children of non- 
Christian parents, and some inducements may 
be offered to them to attend. But ere long the 
constituency alters, and the bud of a Christian 
school is developed. The parents become inter- 
ested, and the lads themselves may be the means 
of doing great things for the Master. There is 
no room for disappointment if the percentage of 
such success is not large, when one recollects 



158 BEX CHBISTUS 

how much fruit may depend from one little tree 
long cultivated. The handful of pupils taught 
by Dr. S. R. Brown in Amoy had among them 
three who exerted a mighty power for good in 
the future history of China, though nothing 
seemed less likely at the time. As there begin 
to be converts, the work of the missionary is 
imperceptibly altered. While still endeavor- 
ing to reach outsiders, he feels a yet stronger 
pressure to teach those who are the first-fruits 
of the new kingdom. This is done in many 
ways, especially by station classes for men, held 
at seasons and places most convenient for them, 
in which the greatest contrasts of learning and 
ignorance are united, but where there is room 
for every talent which the teacher possesses. 
These are rudimentary theological seminaries, 
and out of them have come some of the best 
workers ever seen in China. At first, by reason 
of the poverty of the people, it may be neces- 
sary to give assistance to these adult pupils in 
food or fuel, but later, as a better comprehension 
of the value of the instruction prevails, this is 
no longer the case. By this time embryonic 
churches, in the shape of small groups of twos 
and threes in places near and far, begin to 
appear, and the planting and training of these 
bands of disciples require all the time, strength, 
and wisdom available, and not infrequently 
much more. To this work there is no assign- 
able limit. It is in this that the greatest trials 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 159 

and the greatest awards are alike met. As 
the station grows older and is perhaps better 
equipped, a boarding-school is added, in which 
the instruction of lads from the day-school is 
carried further, perhaps with a view to contin- 
uation in a college elsewhere. 

The Doctor and the Dispensary. — In a well- 
equipped station there is likely to be a physician 
who opens a dispensary and a hospital, the twin 
keys which unlock many Chinese hearts closely 
sealed against all other influences. It is when 
sick, weak, and helpless, that the love and com- 
fort of the gospel appeal most strongly to all. 
Human nature is everywhere the same, and 
that practical philanthropy which does not de- 
spise nor refuse toilsome, disagreeable, and even 
loathsome tasks, if only good may result, is 
even to the most bigoted Chinese its own self- 
evidence of a good-will to man never before 
seen. Chinese medical science is little better 
than a parody on what it professes. Surgery is 
practically unknown. Chinese medicines are 
nauseous, expensive, and for the most part 
inert. Superstition vitiates every kind of treat- 
ment. Nursing is " a lost art " never discovered. 
Foods for the sick are everything which they 
should not be, and dieting is both inconceivable 
and impossible. Antiseptics are as unknown as 
the X rays, and in the absence of sanitation, 
ventilation, proper clothing, isolation, and gen- 
eral common sense, nothing but a strong con- 



160 Bi:X CHBISTUS 

stitution and the mercy of God prevent all 
patients from dying daily of unconscious but 
age-long violation of all the laws of nature. 
One's faith in the germ theory of disease is 
much shaken by the unassailable fact that the 
Chinese race still survives. 

Preaching to dispensary patients, and espe- 
cially faithful work among regular occupants of 
the hospital, is probably the most immediately 
rewarding missionary effort in China. If the 
hospital and dispensary staff should be adequate, 
great good may be done by combined medical 
and evangelistic tours, referring all graver cases 
to the central station for treatment. A list of 
the diseases treated in a well-established medi- 
cal work reads like the table of contents of a 
compendious treatise on the Theory and Practice 
of Medicine and Surgery. Great numbers of 
frightful cases present themselves which in an 
Occidental land would never be seen at all, 
because they would have been treated in their 
earlier stages. The training of medical students 
is an important part of the missionary physi- 
cian's work. It is a task beset with difficulties, 
but has great rewards. 

Special efforts are often made for opium 
smokers, especially in the opium-cursed province 
of Shansi, where wonderful results have been 
sometimes obtained. Deacon Liu, the stalwart 
Christian who refused to fly from the Boxers, 
had at one time been a phenomenally heavy 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 161 

smoker, taking more than an ounce of opium 
each day. Here and elsewhere the outcome of 
" opium refuges " has been mixed, and not in- 
frequently highly disappointing. It has been 
found that opium pills compounded with mor- 
phia may induce a worse habit than the one 
given up. Or, in Cliinese aphoristic phrase, 
" trying to cure consumption, the patient gets 
asthma also." Work for the blind is carried on 
to some extent by Mr. Murray in Peking, in the 
use of the Braille system of raised dots to rep- 
resent Chinese sounds, and with wonderful re- 
sults ; but the plan has not yet been widely 
introduced. Something has been done in the 
way of Protestant orphanages, and a great deal 
by the indefatigable Roman Catholics. Mrs. 
Mills of Chefoo, formerly of the American 
Presbyterian mission, is a pioneer in efforts for 
the very numerous deaf and dumb. A refuge 
for the insane was founded by Dr. J. G. Kerr 
in 1898 a^ Canton, and each of these enterprises 
has a vast field among the hopelessly afflicted 
in this great empire. Dr. Kerr died in 1901, 
having been at the head of one of the largest 
hospitals for more than forty years. He trained 
a hundred qualified Chinese physicians and 
published many well-known medical works. 
A beginning has likewise been made in the 
special treatment of lepers, particularly by 
Mr. and Mrs. Brewster in the Fukien prov- 
ince, where the number of those suffering 



162 BEX CHBISTUS 

from this terrible malady is much greater than 
elsewhere. 

There is no reason why self-supporting Chris- 
tian physicians, men and women, should not 
feel a call to practise their divine art in China, 
in cooperation with any other work which they 
might select, with a reasonable certainty that 
great good in new ways, as well as in those 
already opened, will assuredly result. 

SIGNIFICANT SENTENCES 

He has sounded forth the tnimpet that shall never call 

retreat, 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment 

seat. 
O be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet. 
Our God is marching on ! 

— Julia "Ward Howe. 

The Yale Law School student graduating with the 
best record (1903) was Chung Hui Wang, a graduate of 
Tientsin University. 

Morrison's translation of the New Testament is one of 
the noblest services ever rendered by any human hand to 
the cause of religion. . . . Seven years had elapsed be- 
fore he brought a convert to the font ; but through the 
means of his dictionary it is impossible to estimate to how 
many souls the doctrines of redemption have been and 
will be conveyed. — North American Review, 

What has China to show for her far-famed literary ex- 
aminations ? Only a graduate wearing a yellow crystal 
or ruby button — and to this, sometimes, is added a 



CHBISTIAN MISSIONS 168 

peacock's feather. This last is a fit emblem of his gi-eat- 
ness ; for just as surely as the glory of the peacock falls 
to the gi'ound at the first adverse wind, this man falls 
from his pedestal whenever he comes in contact with an 
all-round educated man from the Occident. 

— Hanxah C. Woodhull. 

During my twenty years' stay in China I always con- 
gratulated myself on the fact that the missionaries were 
there . . . The good done by them in the way of edu- 
cation, of medical relief, and of other charities cannot 
be overestimated. 

— Hon. G. F. Seward, former U. S. Minister. 

I made a study of missionary work in China. I took 
a man-of-war and visited almost every open port in the 
empire. At each of these places I visited and inspected 
every missionary station. At the schools the scholars 
were arrayed before me and examined. I went through 
the missionary hospitals. I attended synods and church 
services. I saw the missionaries, ladies and gentlemen, 
in their homes. I unqualifiedly, and in the strongest lan- 
guage that tongue can utter, give to these men and women 
who are living and dying in China and in the far East 
my full and unadulterated commendation. In China the 
missionaries are the leaders in every charitable work. 
They give to the natives largely out of their scanty earn- 
ings, and they honestly administer the alms of others. 
When famine arrives — and it comes every year — or the 
rivers inundate the soil with never-ceasing frequency, 
the missionary is the first and last to give his time and 
labor to alleviate suffering. They are the writers of 
books for the Chinese. They are the intei*preters for 
them and the legations. The first graduates of the finest 
western colleges supply and practice surgery, — an un- 
known art among the Chinese. 

— Charles Denby, former U. S. Minister. 



164 BEX CHBISTUS 

The Open Door 

The Open Door for China ! 

Doors that are closed shut in 
Squalor and superstition 

And the old, old shapes of sin ; 
The sin of the Primal Peoples, 

Cunning and fierce and fell, 
With foul untruth and lack of ruth, 

And hate as deep as hell. 

The Open Door for China ! 

And hail to the coming light ! 
For blinded eyes and stifled cries 

Are there in her awful night. 
The light of the White Man's Gospel — 

The light of the White Man's Law — 
Woman and slave to lift and save 

From the " ancient dragon's " maw. 

Blood of the pale young martyrs, 

New-slain for the White Man's creed — 
Of the mighty tree that is yet to be 

It waters the fertile seed. 
Their happy eyes shall see it 

From the Place of the Golden Floor ; 
They failed — they died ! Their hands set wide 

The leaves of the " Open Door " ! 

— Blanche M. Channing, in the Boston Journal. 

THEMES FOR STUDY OR DISCUSSION 

I. The Door Opened to the Gospel. 

II. The White Man's Burden in China. 

III. The Nestorian Tablet. 

IV. Fibre of Faith among the Early Converts. 
V. Native Preachers and Teachers. 

VI. The Two Roberts — Morrison and Milne. 



CBBISTIAN MISSIONS 165 

VIT. Williams, The Pioneer Printer. 
VIII. Peter Parker and Medical Missions. 
IX. Power of Christian Literature in the Flowery- 
Kingdom. 
X. The China Inland " Faith " Mission. 
XI. The Tragedy at Tientsin in 1870 and Tientsin 

To-day. 
XII. Sir Robert Hart and Our Debt to Christian 
Diplomats. 

BOOKS OF REFERENCE 
General References as Before 

Beresford's '' The Break-up of China." II, XII. 
Bishop's " The Yangtze Valley and Beyond." I, II, XII. 
Bryson's " John Kenneth Mackenzie." VIII. 
Creegan's " Great Missionaries of the Church." I. 
"Crisis in China" (reprint of articles in North American 

Review). II, XII. 
Curzon's " Problems of the Far East." II, XII. 
Dukes's " Everyday Life in China." V. 
Foster's " Christian Progress in China." I, IV, V, IX. 
Gibson's " Missionary Problems and Methods." I, IV, V. 
Graves's « Forty Years in China." II, VIH, IX, XII. 
Gutztaff's " Chinese History." I, II, IH. 
Henry's " The Cross and the Dragon." IV. 
Hue's "Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China." Ill, 

IV, V. 
Johnston's " China and Formosa." V, VIII. 
Johnston's " China and Its Future." XII. 
Leonard's " A Hundred Years of Missions." I, IV, V. 
Moule's " New China and Old." HI, VIH. 
Muirhead's " China and the Gospel." IX. 
Nevius's " China and the Chinese." I, HI, IV, V, IX. 
Robson's " Griffith John." V. 
Speer's " The Oldest and Newest Empire." I, II. 



166 BEX CHRISTUS 

Speer's " Missions and Politics in Asia." 1, 11, IX. 
Taylor's "Days of Blessing in Inland China." II, X. 
Wilson's " China." IX, XI. 

Articles on China in Periodicals : — 

Contemporary, Vol. 36, " The Future of China." XII. 
Nineteenth Century, Vol. 43, " The Future of Manchu- 
ria." II. 
North American, Vol. 153, "New Life in China." 11. 



CHAPTER V 

CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. PART II 

On the Threshold of the Twentieth Century 

Woman's Work. ^ — One can have no idea of 
the regenerative forces at work in China without 
some knowledge of woman's work in the Flowery 
Kingdom. It is desirable, therefore, at this point 
to summarize those forms of activity which be- 
long distinctively to woman's realm. From the 
beginning, as wives of missionaries, women have 
had a noble share in the labors of their husbands, 
but it is in their organized capacity that we see 
the largest results. Hon. Chester Holcombe, 
secretary of the legation, and for some years 
acting minister of the United States, says : " If 
the missionaries in that vast empire had accom- 
plished nothing more during the half century 
than to furnish object-lessons of the true posi- 
tion of women, and the highest type of Christian 
homes, that result alone would justify their 
presence in China, and the money invested in 
the enterprise." But in addition to this general 
service, as exponents of a new type of woman- 
hood, there are certain concrete achievements 

1 At Dr. Smith's request this part of Chapter V was 
written by Miss Dyer. 

167 



168 BEX CHRISTUS 

which stand forth as conspicuous examples of 
what women alone could do there for their own 
sex. Foremost among these is — 

The Educational Work. — Like all far-reach- 
ing plans for the uplifting of the human race, 
the beginnings were humble. The genesis of 
schools and colleges for women throughout the 
East may be traced to a little gathering of ladies 
in a London drawing-room in the summer of 
1834. Rev. David Abeel had just returned 
from China to recruit his broken health. Bur- 
dened with a sense of the misery and degrada- 
tion which he had seen among the women, and 
which no man could relieve, he laid their case 
before these ladies. The result was the forma- 
tion of the Society for Promoting Female Edu- 
cation in the East. This was the first attempt 
to reach women in non-Christian lands in the 
only way they could be reached — through their 
own sex. A representative of the society was 
sent to Singapore to open a school for Chinese 
girls, the foregleam of a light now shining 
brightly in many educational centres. Little 
did that small group of praying women, who 
assembled at Mr. Abeel's appeal, realize that 
before the century closed its rays would have 
penetrated into dark corners throughout the 
whole world. 

Nearly a generation passed, however, before 
this pioneer society was followed by a second, 
this time in America. The Woman's Union 



CHBISTlAJSr MISSIONS 169 

Missionary Society, formed in New York in 
1861, marks an era of rapid expansion. No less 
than thirty-three societies came into existence 
within twenty-one years in the United States 
alone. The Congregationalists of Boston led 
off in 1868 with the Woman's Board of Mis- 
sions. The Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, 
and Episcopalians, also societies in Canada, fol- 
lowed in quick succession. 

It is profoundly significant that this splendid 
new impulse for foreign missions synchronizes 
almost perfectly with the movement for the 
higher education of women, and the establish- 
ment of colleges for them both in England and 
the United States. The enlargement of mind 
and soul, the broader horizon of thought, the 
development of administrative powers engen- 
dered by greater educational privileges needed 
to be directed into channels of worthy effort. 
Coincident with this opening of doors of privi- 
lege in Christian lands came the opening of 
doors of opportunity in heathendom. Seldom 
has there been a more marked example of the 
way in which the field and the workers are 
divinely fitted for each other. 

Day and Boarding Schools. — Prior to the 
period of organization a few schools for girls 
had been established in China. One of the 
oldest, which may be taken as a type of all, was 
founded by Mrs. C. C. Baldwin of the Ameri- 
can Board in Foochow nearly fifty years ago. 



170 BEX CHRISTUS 

Another was started by the Woolston sisters, 
Sarah and Beulah, under the auspices of Meth- 
odist women in Baltimore. These and other 
early plants were transferred eventually to the 
fostering care of the Woman's Boards of dif- 
ferent denominations. Bitter opposition was 
encountered at first. The Chinese claim that 
women have neither minds nor souls, why 
should they be taught to read? If parents 
did not want their girl children, why should 
they commit them to foreigners? There were 
other ways to dispose of the encumbrances. 
They could put them out of existence, or could 
give them to some one who wanted to bring 
up a wife for his son. Better still, they might 
sell them for a small sum of money. This 
last consideratior^ furnished the solution to the 
problem. For money the missionaries were 
allowed the privilege of feeding, clothing, and 
educating the girls, and also deciding to whom 
they should be betrothed. This was called 
"buying the right of betrothal," and it marked 
an important stage of progress, as it made it pos- 
sible to marry the girls to Christian young men. 
The custom is almost unnecessary nowadays, 
and is always discouraged if any other way can 
be found to release the girls. 

After the period of organization set in, the 
women of England and America took up the 
extension of these schools in good earnest, and 
from 1870 till the close of the century they 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 171 

multiplied rapidly. Through them access was 
gained to the homes, thus giving an opportu- 
nity to reach the hearts of the poor, unloved, 
sorrowing women. Yet the obstacles to their 
establishment even now are many and arise from 
a variety of sources ■ — the distance is too great, 
and the girls must not be seen on the street even 
if the mother is willing. The father or a big 
brother vetoes the plan, or, if he be over-per- 
suaded, uncles, aunts, and grandmothers hover 
in the not distant ofi&ng with their scoffs and 
biting sarcasms. Mrs. A. H. Smith said at the 
last Shanghai Conference : " As we hold out the 
bright and cheerful lamp of education to our 
Chinese sisters, such a warning cry of opposition 
goes up all around that one might suppose we 
had offered a lighted bomb ! " The education of 
girls is in no way opposed to the theories of the 
Chinese, but only to their practice. In this lies 
the hope of a great intellectual awakening for 
their women. Experience shows that Chinese 
girls have as good minds as the boys, but their 
disabilities are naturally much greater. 

The boarding-schools, now counted by scores, 
bring teacher and pupil into still closer relations 
than the day-schools, and increase the power of 
personal influence. In them, also, it was nec- 
essary at first to provide almost everything for 
the pupils ; but by degrees more and more re- 
sponsibility in this matter, as well as in regard 
to betrothals, is laid upon the parents. This 



172 REX CHRISTUS 

enhances in their eyes the value of an education 
for their daughters. What is learned from 
books constitutes but a small part of their 
training. One of the most important functions 
is to fit them to become wives of the Chris- 
tian young men who are to be at the head of 
the church in China, and noble mothers for a 
new and better generation yet to come. The 
course of study is elementary, but the schools 
are graded, so that classes can be graduated, 
and they are forerunners of colleges and higher 
institutions of learning. 

Influence on the Community. — As teachers, 
Bible readers, physicians, nurses, wives of 
preachers, and mothers in their own homes, 
the girls from these schools are already shap- 
ing public sentiment in this vast empire. At 
the annual conference the native women make 
reports of their evangelistic tours and other 
forms of service. The consciousness that such 
reports are expected of them awakens a sense 
of responsibility and a laudable ambition. One 
of the most notable gatherings of the nineteenth 
century was a women's conference at Shanghai 
in November, 1900, at which English-speaking 
ladies, foreign and Chinese, compared notes 
concerning the home life of Chinese women. 
Lady Blake, wife of the governor of Hong- 
kong, presided, and among the speakers was 
Dr. Ida Kahn, one of the few Chinese gradu- 
ates from a medical school in the United States. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 173 

Her address on Girl Slavery was a finished, 
as well as a forcible, production. The intelli- 
gent grasp of all the topics by the native 
women spoke volumes for their missionary 
training. 

A striking illustration of their influence in 
creating a right public sentiment appeared 
recently in Hangchow, where the wives of sev- 
eral mandarins met in an ancestral hall, and 
formed themselves into an anti-footbinding 
society. Eighty women were present, fifty of 
whom signed a pledge to unbind their own 
feet and never to bind their daughters' feet. 
This meeting was most remarkable in that it 
was called by non-Christian women, and entirely 
conducted by them. Before its close they de- 
cided to go to work at once to raise money 
among themselves to open a girls' school. The 
initial public protest against the cruel custom 
had been made years before by one brave Ameri- 
can girl at the head of a school in Peking. " I 
cannot have children in my school with bound 
feet," she said. The same attitude was taken 
by missionaries of different denominations, who 
had been constantly working to abolish the evil. 
This attracted attention, and brought forth re- 
monstrance, but a sentiment against the cus- 
tom was awakened and mass meetings were 
held to keep it alive. But who would have 
predicted that any such spontaneous action by 
Chinese women themselves, and not Christians, 



174 BEX CHRIST us 

would ever have taken place ? The same power 
of public sentiment led twenty-one families of 
high social position in Foochow to obtain im- 
perial sanction to unbind their women's feet. 
About three years ago the empress dowager 
issued an edict against the custom, which 
caused much rejoicing in America. But despite 
her command the expectations of a large mar- 
ket for American shoes in China, to cover liber- 
ated feet, have not been realized. 

A Birthday Gift to the Empress Dowager. — 
Another significant incident took place during 
the war with Japan. " It was a happy sugges- 
tion,'' says Dr. Smith, "at this time of storm 
and stress that women of the Protestant churches 
should present to the empress dowager, on the 
completion of her sixtieth year (Nov. 7, 1894), 
a special edition of the New Testament, in large 
type, with gold border and solid silver covers 
embossed with bamboo designs. The 10,900 
contributors represented twenty-nine missions. 
The casket was carried to the Tsung Li Yamen 
by the British and American Ministers, and the 
following day it was sent by the Yamen to her 
Majesty, and subsequently acknowledged by 
return gifts to twenty-two lady missionaries 
who had been prominent in the movement. 
The greatest curiosity was excited by this vol- 
ume. The emperor, hearing of it, sent eunuchs 
to the depository of the American Bible Society 
to procure copies of the Bible for himself, and 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 175 

it was known that he read it and that he learned 
to pray. What influence these incidents may 
have exerted it is impossible to say." 

Kindergartens. — In 1894 the first kinder- 
gartens were opened, but less than a dozen are 
to be found in all China. Yet children mature 
so much earlier in the East than in the West 
that there is far greater need of this class of 
schools in the Orient than in lands where evil 
influences are neutralized by Christian homes. 
If a Froebel instead of a Confucius had laid the 
foundations of China's educational system, what 
a different nation she would be to-day ! 

The notion that the Chinese do not care for 
their children is false, though the horrible facts 
of infanticide and girl slavery would seem to 
warrant such a belief. It is true, also, that they 
are callous toward the dead because they know 
nothing of a future life. This leads a father, 
when his child dies, to say he has " thrown it 
away." But parental love is as strong in the 
human heart in China as elsewhere. Does a 
mother lack affection who says of her baby, 
" He is so sweet that he makes you love him till 
it kills you " ? Probably no country in the 
world has more travelling shows specially pre- 
pared for the entertainment of children. The 
fact that an army of men find it possible to sup- 
port themselves by selling toys and sweets is 
proof that the Chinese are fond of children and 
indulgent to them. 



176 BEX CHBISTUS 

Araong their games is the counterpart of our 
familiar Punch and Judy show. Says Dr. 
Headland of the Peking University, " Those who 
hold that the Chinese do not love their children 
have never consulted their nursery lore." No 
literature, not even their sacred books, is so 
generally known as the rhymes which corre- 
spond to the English Mother Goose ; but many, 
unfortunately, are grossly impure. No mother 
in a Christian land would allow her children to 
read them. He tells us that two out of the 
eighteen provinces are singularly rich in these 
juvenile jingles. No fewer than five versions 
may be found of " This little pig went to market," 
showing that baby fingers and toes furnish the 
same entertainment in the Orient as in the 
Occident. The rhyme of the Little Mouse is 
as popular all over North China as Jack and Jill 
to an English-speaking child. It begins : • — 

" He climbed up the candlestick, 
The little mousey brown, 
To steal and eat tallow, 
And he couldn't get down- 
He called for his grandma 
But his grandma was in town, 
So he doubled up into a wheel 
And rolled himself down." 

On accouDt of their multitude of toys, their 
fondness for games and their innate ingenuity, 
Chinese children are peculiarly receptive to kin- 
dergarten teaching. 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 177 

Bible Women and Other Workers. — Next to the 
teacher, perhaps the Bible woman is the strong- 
est personal force on missionary ground. She 
is an exponent of the "new" womanhood, and 
the preparation for her many and varied duties 
is a delicate and difficult task. The Oriental 
sense of propriety demands that she shall be 
middle-aged. There is no branch of the evan- 
gelistic work more important than the tours of 
these native Christian women. There are few 
homes to which they are not welcome. Every- 
where they are listened to with respect. They 
show wonderful tact in adapting themselves to 
circumstances and in overcoming the prejudices 
of the people. They visit the afflicted, pray 
with the dying, minister to the sick and desti- 
tute, giving freely of their own small allowances 
to help those in distress. Occasionally one will 
supply the pulpit till a pastor can be found to 
take charge. In the conduct of the affairs of 
the native churches everything depends upon 
the character and quality of those who may be 
raised up as assistants from among their own 
people. It is from this point of view that the 
supreme importance of adequate and thorough 
Christian training for all classes of women is 
deeply felt, and training-schools for Bible women 
have come to be recognized as a necessity. 
More than twenty have been established since 
1874, when the first one was opened by the 
Baptists at Swatow. A student from a single 



178 BEX CHBISTU8 

school of this character last year reported 4367 
attendants at her meetings during a tour of 
less than six months. But the whole number 
of persons reached by this form of service ex- 
ceeds computation, and their influence for good 
no man can measure. 

It is not only to the poor and humble that 
they carry the message of salvation. One of 
the Bible women, Mrs. Chao, received a sum- 
mons lately to visit a princess, whose name for 
obvious reasons is withheld. As Mrs. Chao un- 
folded to her the precious truths concerning the 
true God, the princess was much affected, and 
falling upon her knees cried out ; " I, the great 
Princess Imperial of the first rank, who have 
never knelt to any one but my Empress, I kneel 
before you, and entreat you to tell me, are you 
the true God?" 

The gathering of Chinese women for instruc- 
tion in station classes is another useful form of 
Christian activity. Brought together for six 
weeks or two months during the least busy time 
of the year, and put under regular instruction, 
away from the endless interruptions of their 
own homes, they have a chance to see more 
clearly the full meaning of Christianity, as ex- 
emplified in the lives of their teachers. At the 
end of the term they return home benefited 
themselves and ready to help others. 

Mothers' meetings play an important part in 
the education of Chinese women. These are 



CHRtBTIAN MISSIONS 179 

held in the homes of the missionaries, with 
surroundings as bright as possible, and often 
attract timid women of the better classes. See- 
ing a foreign baby bathed is a great delight and 
an excellent object-lesson* At the close, tea 
and light refreshments are served. Though 
first drawn by " cake and curiosity," they learn 
td love these gatherings, from which they carry 
away beautiful truths concerning motherhood, 
pre-natal as well as its later phases. They go 
back to their own dwellings, dark with igno- 
rance and superstition, with the light of new 
ideas in their eyes and the stirring of new long* 
ings in their hearts- 
Such are some of the " by-products " of mis- 
sionary effort, and they are often quite as pre« 
cious as the ore mined by direct labor. 

Medical Work 

In order to appreciate fully what women are 
doing in China in their medical capacity, one 
must have a clear conception of what a Chinese 
home is like. Into its seclusion no foreign male 
physician may penetrate, but the woman doctor 
has access everywhere, from the yamen, or 
government house, to the most abject mat hovel. 
She sees the boy-baby idol dressed and cared for 
as though a real baby ; the paper idols in their 
straw shrines in the homes of the poor and the 
bronze idols in those of the rich; the mystic 
characters on slips of red paper on the walls 



180 REX CHBISTUS 

with sticks of incense burning before them; 
the charm worn round the neck to ward off 
devils ; the family shrine with its ancestral tab- 
lets, costly vases and incense burners. To her 
" comes the little slave girl almost murdered, 
the childless wife whose husband is about to 
discard her, the thirteen-year old daughter-in-law 
whose mother-in-law has beaten her eye out, 
and the child whose poor little crushed feet, 
inflamed and suppurating with decaying bones, 
appeal to her from the cruel bandages." It was 
being an eye-witness to conditions such as these 
which converted Isabella Bird Bishop from in- 
difference to foreign missions into an ardent be- 
liever in their saving power, and led her to build 
five hospitals and an orphanage in the East. 

To the Methodist church belongs the honor 
of sending out the first medical missionary 
woman in the person of Dr. Combs of Philadel- 
phia, who reached Peking in the fall of 1873. 
With her was associated Dr. Howard (now Mrs. 
Dr. King) a graduate of Ann Arbor. She was 
summoned to Tientsin to attend the wife of the 
prime minister Li Hung Chang, and later to 
minister to his mother, an aged woman who left 
a bequest of 81000 for Dr. Howard's work, the 
first bequest of a Chinese woman to Christian 
benevolence. Mrs. Wu, the wife of a former 
Minister to the United States was also a patient. 
Thus access was gained to households of rank, 
and this proved a turning-point in the history 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 181 

of medical work in Tientsin. There, and in 
other great cities — Peking, Shanghai, Canton, 
Foochow, and elsewhere — the women's hospi- 
tals and dispensaries are power houses from 
which radiate immeasurable forces for good. 

Healing is only a small part of the physician's 
work. Systematic preaching and teaching in 
the waiting-rooms, and especially in the hospital 
wards, are perhaps universally practised. When 
patients have most time on their hands, and 
when their hearts are peculiarly opened, Chris- 
tian teaching readily finds entrance. The same 
persons constantly return, bringing their relatives 
and friends, and thus the circles of influence 
perpetually widen. In the poor man's home, 
where the newly born girl baby is not wanted, 
the woman physician does the work of an evan- 
gelist by telling of a Heavenly Father's love for 
even this tiny babe. To the crowd on the 
street, where a woman has taken poison and 
thrown herself on the doorstep of her adversary 
to die, she tells the story of redeeming love. 
Many a sufferer turns to kiss the shadow of 
these Santa Filomenas as it falls upon the wall 
in hospital or home. In China, too, 

" A Lady with a Lamp shall stand 
In the great history of the land, 
A noble type of good, 
Heroic womanhood." 

The rapid expansion of medical work during 
the last two decades forms one ©f the most 



182 BEX CHBISTUS 

encouraging records in the annals of foreign mis- 
sionary effort. Hospitals and dispensaries are 
now regarded as indispensable agencies in every 
field. Some, like the Isabella Fisher Hospital 
in Tientsin, were endowed by a single person. 
At Shanghai the land, building, furnishing, in- 
struments, and the salaries of a physician and 
nurse for some years, were provided for by the 
munificence of Mrs. Margaret Williamson of 
New York, for whom the hospital is named. 
Last year 36,643 patients were treated at the 
dispensary, and 538 were admitted to the wards, 
of which 90 were maternity cases. The Pres- 
byterians alone have seven hospitals for women 
in China. Four are brand new, three taking 
the place of those recently destroyed by Boxers. 
A few Chinese women have received medical 
training in the United States. One of the first, 
Miss Hii King Eng of Foochow, the daughter 
of a native clergyman, studied at the Woman's 
College in Philadelphia and is now at the head 
of the Woolston Memorial Hospital. She came 
to this country in 1884 and returned fully 
equipped in 1895. Some idea of the extent of 
her practice may be gained from the fact that 
she treated over 15,000 patients last year. An- 
other one was Mary Stone, the first girl brought 
up by her own parents in all central and western 
China with unbound feet. Her father and 
mother were among the first Christian con- 
verts. She was accompanied by Ida Kahn, 



CHBISTIAN MISSIONS 183 

who began her life in a heathen home. Both 
graduated from Ann Arbor and are now suc- 
cessful practitioners together in a large hospi- 
tal in Kiukiang. These are some of the 
results seen in the second generation of Chris- 
tian families. 

A small beginning has been made in behalf 
of special classes of suffering humanity, such as 
lepers, but the defectives are scarcely touched as 
yet. The first school for blind girls was opened 
in 1890, when Dr. Mary Niles of Canton was the 
means of saving the life of one of the viceroy's 
wives. In gratitude the man asked if there was 
anything he could do to assist in her work. She 
replied that she wanted money to start a home 
for blind girls in the city, and he gave her -$1000. 
The initial step has been taken in rescue work 
in Shanghai by opening a Door of Hope, a 
branch of the Florence Crittendon Mission in 
New York. 

The First Medical College for Women. — The 
crowning achievement of all these years of labor 
is the erection at Canton, one of the most 
populous cities in the empire, of the Women's 
Medical College, the first institution of its 
kind in China. It is an interesting fact that 
Protestant work began in this busy metropolis, 
where Dr. J. G. Kerr, of the American Presby- 
terian mission, gave nearly fifty fruitful years to 
medical service. The exercises in connection 
with the opening of the college, Dec. 17, 1902,- 



184 BEX CHBISTUS 

were worthy of so remarkable an event. An 
audience of seven hundred persons assembled 
within the building, and Chinese officials from 
the viceroy down were present either personally 
or by deputy. A guard of five hundred soldiers 
lined the streets in the neighborhood to do 
honor to the occasion. The college, the gift of 
one generous man, is splendidly located, and 
is the property of the American Presbyterian 
Mission. The wealthiest and best educated 
Chinese have shown a marked interest in the 
enterprise, which is due largely to the untiring 
efforts of Dr. Mary H. Fulton, aided by her 
faithful coadjutor. Dr. Mary Niles. They and 
their associates have an extensive practice 
among all classes, high as well as low. Thou- 
sands of women have been relieved of nameless 
sufferings through their ministrations. The 
noble pioneer work of Dr. Kerr and others 
paved the way for Dr. Fulton to realize the 
dream which she had cherished during her eigh- 
teen years of missionary life. The preceding 
June she had opened a new hospital for women. 
On the day when the college was dedicated 
the Chinese officials were loud in their praise, and 
astonished that one woman could accomplish so 
much. The United States consul, who made 
the formal address, said, " In raising the women 
of China to such a noble and unselfish standard, 
Dr. Fulton is undertaking one of the grandest 
tasks that has ever fallen to one of her sex." 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 186 

There are accommodations for about sixty stu- 
dents. The first class numbered thirteen. The 
faculty consists of six foreign physicians and 
several capable native doctors. The course of 
study covers four years. Strict examinations 
are held, and diplomas given only to those who 
have met all the requirements. The institution 
is entirely self-supporting, and all the students, 
as well as the members of the faculty, are ear- 
nest Christians. It is proposed to add a train- 
ing-school for nurses, and a children's hospital, 
for which the Chinese have subscribed $3000; 
and when completed, the group of buildings will 
constitute a medical plant of which any city 
might be proud. Its influence in undermining 
idolatry and in laying the foundations of Chris- 
tianity will be incalculable. The China Mail 
in an editorial said : " Among the present-day 
developments of mission work and general prog- 
ress, there is nothing of more importance than 
the thorough training of Chinese women in 
western medicine and surgery. The field for 
such, when properly qualified, is practically 
limitless." For several years, in all the large 
centres, women missionaries have been engaged 
in precisely this work of fitting native girls for 
the medical profession, in which some of them 
have attained eminent success. One advantage 
of this new institution is the opportunity af- 
forded to train larger classes at a time, with 
less expenditure of missionary force. 



186 BEX CHBJSTUS 

In China the number of women workers 
equals, if it does not actually exceed, that of 
the men. In view of what they have accom- 
plished since the little company gathered in the 
London drawing-room to listen to Dr. Abeel's 
appeal, there might well be inscribed upon the 
walls of every schoolhouse, chapel, hospital, 
dispensary, orphanage, and regenerated home, 
Sir Christopher Wren's famous motto in St. 
Paul's cathedral, Si monumentum requiris^ eir^ 
cumspioe. 

Greneral Summary of the Third Period 

Returning now from relevant digressions, it 
is desirable to call attention to the great changes 
which were coming over the vast empire of the 
Far East, The haughty exclusiveneas of the 
*^ Son of Heaven " could no longer be maintained 
in the face of the military occupation of Peking 
and the dictation of a series of treaties by the 
allies. A few years later the troublesome Audi- 
ence Question was settled, and the relations 
between the court of Peking and the other gov- 
ernments were put on a new basis. In self- 
defence it became necessary for the Chinese to 
know something of international law, and this 
led them, at last, to take steps to ameliorate the 
condition of the army of coolies who had been 
sent to remote parts of the world as laborers 
on plantations, where they were often treated 
with cruelty and whence many of them never 



CRBISTIAN MISSIONS 187 

returned. Ministers from Peking began to 
appear in Occidental capitals, and little by 
little, despite the ignorance, the obstinacy, the 
selfishness, and the insincerity of the officials of 
the empire high and low, rays of light began 
everywhere to penetrate the circumambient 
darkness. Almost the whole of this long pe- 
riod was marked by a series of contests between 
missionaries and the Chinese officials and lit- 
erati^ in which the latter strove to choke off the 
perpetual advances of the former, but always 
without success. Dr. Dudgeon of Peking is 
authority for the statement that with a view to 
discourage missionary efforts the official census 
of the empire was materially reduced by one- 
third, with the connivance and by the sanction 
of the Board of Revenue. " The following year, 
as no abatement of missionary zeal followed, the 
figures were again added to the record." It was 
remarkable that in spite of the long series of 
more or less important riots few missionaries 
were actually killed, Mr. Argent, a lay mis- 
sionary of the English Wesleyan Society, to- 
gether with Mr, Green, a customs officer, was 
murdered at Wu Hsiieh in central China at a 
time of peculiar unrest. Rev. James A. Wylie 
of the United Presbyterian Mission was killed 
in Liao Yang, Manchuria, by passing soldiers, 
during the war against Japan. 

The Great Famine. —The years 1877 and 1878 
were marked by the Great Famine, which spread 



188 BIJX CHRIST [IS 

its baleful shadow over all the northern prov- 
inces of the empire. During the first of these 
years the missionaries in eastern Shantung took 
active steps in administering partial relief, and 
when the distress became general, in the year 
following, this was repeated on a gigantic scale. 
A central committee was organized in Shanghai, 
and both Protestant and Roman Catholic mis- 
sionaries, together with some members of the 
customs service (sixty-nine foreigners in all), 
engaged in the work of distribution of relief 
upon as large a scale as practicable. Four 
Protestant missionaries died from exposure and 
overwork, one of whom, Mr. Whiting of the 
American Presbyterian mission, was honored 
by the governor of Shansi with a public funeral 
in the provincial capital. The horrors of that 
terrible time will never pass out of remem- 
brance. The official report of the committee 
estimated the loss of life at from nine and a 
half to thirteen millions, and according to Dr. 
Williams no famine is recorded in the history 
of any land which equalled this in the death- 
rate. The gratitude of the people was real, if 
not always formally expressed in cordial ac- 
knowledgment like that of a communication 
from H. E. Kuo Sung Tao, Minister to Great 
Britain, in a letter to Lord Salisbury, in which 
he spoke of it as "too signal a recognition of 
the common brotherhood of humanity ever to 
be forgotten." 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 189 

As one of the incidents of this critical period 
it may be mentioned that Rev. Timothy Richard, 
then connected with the newly formed English 
Baptist mission in Shantung, felt drawn to go 
to Shansi, where he began that cultivation of 
an acquaintance with Chinese officials which 
later bore important fruits. In the year 1889 
some forty families, numbering perhaps three 
hundred persons, of the Christians of this same 
mission were impelled by local distress to mi- 
grate from Shantung to remote Shensi (together 
with thousands of their fellow provincials), 
among them some who were the life-blood of 
the church, including promising young men and 
lads from the schools. Rather than settle in 
the heathen villages, they determined to erect a 
village for themselves where they could control 
their environment. After much hardship and 
sacrifice this was accomplished, the hamlet being 
styled "■ Fu Yin Ts'un," or " Glad Tidings Vil- 
lage," a name unique in China. The settlement 
much resembles Christian communities which 
have been organized in India. It was a natural 
outcome of this migration of the flock that some 
of the shepherds should be moved to follow. In 
spite of famine, sickness, and persecution, this 
graft from afar prospered, so that five years later 
instead of one station there were sixteen, with a 
large company of worshippers and many learn- 
ing to read. 

Two Notable Gatherings. — An interesting 



190 BEX CHRIS TUS 

epoch in missionary effort was marked by the 
gathering of the first General Conference at 
Shanghai in May, 1877, attended by 126 repre- 
sentatives of different bodies in a three days' 
session, the proceedings of which were gathered 
into a usefnl volume. 

There were at that time 26 societies working 
in the empire, besides the three Bible Societies, 
British, Scotch, and American (29 in all), and 
a few unconnected workers. The total attend- 
ance was 478, 242 belonging to 13 British socie- 
ties, 210 to 10 American, and 26 were connected 
with two German organizations. Of the ladies 
172 were wives of missionaries, and 63 were un- 
married. The little handful of native Chris- 
tians found at the close of the first war with 
Great Britain had multiplied to something over 
13,000, and the stations occupied amounted to 
92, with 318 organized churches. 

At a second General Conference, also con- 
vened at Shanghai in May, 1890, the sessions 
extended to eleven days. The number of mis- 
sion societies in the empire was then 40, the 
actual attendance 445 persons, 18 of whom 
were unconnected. The number of mission- 
ary workers in China was found to be 589 
men, 391 married women, and 316 unmarried 
women, — a great expansion over the last show- 
ing, — making a total of 1296. The churches 
were estimated at 522, and the native Christians 
were found to be 37,287. Sixty-one hospitals 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 191 

and 44 dispensaries in the year 1889 had 
treated more than 848,000 patients. A care- 
ful examination and comparison of the merely 
numerical exhibits of these two conferences 
may convey an impression of a portion of 
the external results of thirteen years of labor. 
But the great momentum which had been ac- 
quired, the accumulated knowledge, the funded 
experience, the spiritual impetus, cannot be set 
down in statistical tables. 

Bible and Tfact Societies.-— Repeated refer- 
ence has been made to the translations of the 
Bible into Chinese, under the auspices of the 
British and Foreign and the American Bible 
societies. The former organization began its 
work in China with the earliest translation work 
of Dr. Morrison, and has been one of the main- 
stays of the missionaries ever since. By its aid 
the Bible, and portions of the Bible, have been 
rendered into numerous colloquial dialects, and 
through the agency of many indefatigable col- 
porteurs copies of one or another of the various 
versions have been sold in all parts of the 
empire. 

The work of the American Bible Society in 
China dates from 1834. All efforts of both soci- 
eties were much hindered by the unsettled con- 
dition of the country before and during the war 
with Great Britain, but as soon as that was over 
activity recommenced. In the earlier stages of 
its work the distribution of books was done 



192 BEX CHEISTUS 

altogether by missionaries, and for the most 
part gratuitously ; but this policy was altered 
about 1866 to the present plan of sales through 
general agents, and only occasional gifts. Even 
as late as 1870, the date of the Tientsin mas- 
sacre, the sales suddenly dropped from over 
216,000 copies to about 37,000, showing a sensi- 
tiveness to political conditions like that of a 
barometer during a typhoon. The phenomenal 
record of Bible sales since the Boxer outbreak 
shows how important an agency this now is. and 
is yet to be in the future. 

Each of the Bible societies has had able and 
active superintendents, the learned and modest 
Mr. Wylie representing the British and Foreign 
and Drs. Gulick, Wheeler, and Hykes the 
American society. In each decade there was a 
great expansion, due not merely to the widening 
field, but to the augmenting demands of the rap- 
idly growing native church. The Scotch Bible 
Society, being formed much later than the others 
(1860), was less hampered by constitutional 
restrictions, and has readily allowed the sales of 
tracts and Bibles together, and early sanctioned 
the use of annotated editions of the gospels, and 
suitable introductions. It has a large and well- 
equipped printing establishment at Hankow, 
and is one of the most enterprising of the agen- 
cies for the regeneration of the people. 

There are a number of tract societies work- 
ing in China, one of which had its rise in the 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 193 

early dawn of mission work, being allied to 
the Religious Tract Society of London. At 
the close of the period under consideration this 
society and another of similar object were united 
under the name of the Chinese Religious Tract 
Society, receiving grants from the British and 
American Tract societies, and publishing useful 
magazines in Chinese. The Central China 
Religious Tract Society has its headquarters in 
Hankow, its issues being largely the production 
of the prolific and devoted Dr. Griffith John, 
who has been mentioned as one of the earlier 
pioueers. A North China Tract Society was 
organized in 1882, which has a wide field of 
its own, and a large number of publications and 
republications. Other societies of the same 
sort have their centres in Foochow, Kiukiang, 
on the Yang-tze, and more recently in western 
China. The products of all these organiza- 
tions, representing, like the Bible translations, 
the best work of the best Christian minds 
familiar with the needs of China, have greatly 
multiplied, and are now disseminated by hun- 
dreds of millions of pages. The value and fruit- 
fulness of this agency cannot be exaggerated. 

Literary Labors. — One of the committees 
appointed at the conference of 1877 was "to 
prepare a series of school-books," the need of 
which was recognized. It consisted of Drs. 
W. A. P. Martin, Alexander Williamson, Rev. 
Messrs. C. W. Mateer, Y. J. Allen, R. Lechler, 



194 nEX cHBisTtra 

and Mr. J. Fryer* At the succeeding con- 
ference it appeared that forty-two separate 
works had been issued under the lead of this 
able committee, representing a vast amount of 
work. It was then proposed that a band of 
practical educators should form a new society, 
to be called the Educational Association of 
China, with a view not merely to publish school 
books, but to improve methods of teaching 
and to promote educational interests. In 
the transition stage in which this great and 
ancient empire then was, this would be a task 
of equal importance and difficulty. As a result 
of this coordination of intellectual and moral 
forces, a wide range of books has been prepared 
covering the most important branches of human 
learning, so that it has become possible for a 
Chinese pupil to receive, through the medium of 
his own language, the equivalent of a college 
education in the west. Triennial meetings of 
this influential and aggressive body have been 
held, beginning with 1893, and the results of 
the work which directly and indirectly are due 
to this agency alone are beyond computation. 

Another indirect outgrowth of the text-book 
committee of 1877 was the organization by 
Dr. Williamson of the Society for the Diffusion 
of Christian and General Knowledge among 
the Chinese, popularly styled the Diff'usion 
Society. Its object was to provide high-class 
literature for the more intelligent of the people 



CHBISTIAN MISSIONS 195 

and illustrated books for families, without 
trenching on the fields of other organizations. 
Physically and intellectually Dr. Williamson 
was a man of large mould, and devised large 
things for China. His death was a great loss, 
but Rev. Timothy Richard, of the English Bap- 
tist mission, who had already shown his talent 
in this work, was invited to become secretary, 
and his mission granted permission. Mr. Rich- 
ard at once broadened the scope of the efforts to 
be undertaken and greatly widened the possible 
field. His idea was to strike for the enlighten- 
ment of the higher classes, especially the officials, 
from whom the greatest help might come, and the 
greatest opposition usually does come. During 
the two following years there were serious riots 
in central China, and an urgent appeal was 
issued for the preparation of literature specially 
adapted to win the approval of those who actu- 
ally hold the key to the hearts of the masses. 
The society published an ably edited magazine, 
conducted by Dr. Y. J. Allen, called the 
Review of the Times^ as well as a similar one, 
The Missionary Review^ designed especially 
for Christians. The avowed object of the 
former was instruction of educated men and 
officials. With this view numerous volumes 
were likewise prepared, the most comprehensive 
being the work of a learned German scholar 
of the Basel Mission, Dr. Ernst Faber, under 
the title of "Civilization East and West." It 



196 EEX CHRISTUS 

is an elaborate exposition in sevent3^-three 
chapters, under five general divisions, of the 
fundamental principles underlying the civiliza- 
tion of the Occident. The circulation has been 
large, and the indirect results must have been 
great. One of the wise methods of the Diffusion 
Society is to distribute, through the agency of 
local missionaries, copies of its books accom- 
panied with portions of the Bible, at the literary 
examinations, to scholars on their departure for 
home. In this way the minds of the leaders of 
the whole empire are reached. 

Power of the Printing-Press. — The great 
streams of Christian literature implied in the 
preceding paragraphs could not have been pro- 
duced without the aid of mission presses, of 
which the chief has been that of the American 
Presbyterian mission in Shanghai, which cele- 
brated its jubilee in 1894. Much of its phe- 
nomenal success in its second stage of existence 
is due to the singular gifts and industry of Mr. 
William Gamble, who arrived in 1858. He 
came from an old Irish Presbyterian family, 
and, after emigrating to the United States, 
worked in a large establishment in Philadelphia, 
and then in the Bible House, New York, whence 
he went to Ningpo, where the press then was, 
taking new type, matrices, and a casting-ma- 
chine. " With his two main inventions, — the 
making of matrices of Chinese type by the elec- 
trotype process, and the Chinese type-case as 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 197 

now generally in use, — added to his keen busi- 
ness faculty, indomitable perseverance, unfail- 
ing patience, and true missionary spirit, he 
succeeded in so developing the Mission Press 
that it speedily grew from infantile proportions 
into a mighty agency for achieving great re- 
sults. He did a work that has hardly been 
equalled in the annals of missions, or in the 
history of the development of the art of print- 
ing. Owing to the geographical position of 
Shanghai, this great establishment bears a 
unique relation to all the missions in China. 
For the last fifteen years it has been under the 
expert management of Rev. George F. Fitch, 
upon whose desk are daily poured letters from 
all parts of China, and from well-nigh all parts 
of the world. Almost every individual mis- 
sionary in China has dealings with the Press, 
and at the time of the jubilee there were more 
than a thousand names on its ledgers. Its 
Chinese force then numbered 96 men, besides 
30 binders outside, and for the five preceding 
years the output had been something over 
200,000,000 pages, of which 123,000,000 were 
scriptures, more than 43,000,000 religious books 
and tracts, and above 18,000,000 magazines. 
For twenty years a Chinese elder of the Pres- 
byterian church had served as its cashier (com- 
pradore)^ "and, while hundreds of thousands 
of dollars had passed through his hands, it is 
not known that a single dollar had ever been 



198 BEX CHRISTUS 

misappropriated." In 1861 the American Meth- 
odist mission began a press at Foochow, which, 
under the superintendency of Rev. Messrs. 
S. L. Baldwin, L. N. Wheeler, N. J. Plumb, 
and others, has done much work, printing not 
only for the southeastern provinces, but also 
for Hongkong, Bangkok, and central and north- 
ern China. 

Reference was made in speaking of the early 
period of missions to the printing-press of the 
American Board under Dr. Bridgman, soon after 
taken over by Dr. S. Wells Williams. That 
was destroyed by fire in Canton in 1858, and ten 
years later Mr. P. R. Hunt, formerly of Madras, 
was sent to Peking to set up a press there, 
which under different managements was contin- 
ued till it was destroyed by the Boxers in June, 
1900. It was useful in printing the scriptures 
in mandarin colloquial, and in much work for 
the North China Tract Society, and for various 
missions. Other presses were established by the 
Church Missionary Society at Ningpo (1869) ; 
by the English Presbyterian mission at Swa- 
tow (1880) for printing books in the Romanized 
colloquial; by the National Bible Society of 
Scotland, already referred to, at Hankow (1885) ; 
by the American Methodist mission at Kiukiang 
(1890), and later in Peking in connection with 
the Peking University. In the latter city the 
Anglican mission also has a press. The China 
Inland Mission has one at Tai Chou, the United 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 199 

Presbyterian mission at Newcliwang, and the 
American Presbyterian mission on the island 
of Hainan. 

Tiiis third period closed with the unexpected 
outcome of a needless war with Japan, which 
exposed to all the world the inherent weakness 
of China, and her inability to play the part 
which had been forced upon her in the " sister- 
hood of nations." 

The Fourth Period, 1895 to 1903 

During the protracted war with Japan the 
Chinese for the first time learned to distinguish 
between different nationalities of foreigners. 
The government undertook to protect neutrals, 
and while many mission stations had to be tem- 
porarily abandoned, there were many others in 
which the missionaries remained in tranquillity, 
and, as it proved, in safety. But the strange 
position in which China found herself, and the 
complete inability of the people to comprehend 
what was going on, led to exhibitions of dissat- 
isfaction and race hatred, with a blind violence 
which was an amazement to the most experi- 
enced. In the peaceable province of Ssuch'uan 
riots broke out which resembled a tropical thun- 
der-storm, driving to the seacoast more than 
eighty foreigners. During the progress of the 
continued persecutions it was reported that more 
than fifty thousand Christians had suffered in 
various ways, many having been killed. The 



200 BBX CHEISTUS 

primary source of these troubles was the recent 
war. It was known that the officials were anti- 
foreign, and it was proved that the troubles 
were incited by them. During the summer of 
this year a terrible tragedy took place in Ku 
Ch'eng, in the Fukien province, vfhere Rev. Mr. 
Stewart, his wife, family, and associates — ten 
persons in all — were attacked by members of a 
Vegetarian Society and killed. Explicit impe- 
rial decrees were issued in regard to these 
events, but the spirit which caused them re- 
mained unaltered. 

At the General Conference of 1890 a strong 
committee had been appointed to put before the 
Chinese government a Statement of the Nature, 
the Work, and Aims of Protestant Missions in 
China. Up to this time it had made no report, 
but on Nov. 11, 1895, a very comprehensive 
document was laid before the Tsung Li Yamen, 
to be presented to the emperor. This paper 
pointed out the fact that Christianity is preached 
all over the world ; that its growth has been 
steady since its origin; that it is an Oriental 
religion; and that it is not new nor recently 
established. Special efforts were made to show 
what Christianity teaches; its instructions in 
regard to obedience to rulers, and in regard to 
filial piety. Its peculiar tenets were enlarged 
upon, its past history and the honor in which 
the Christian church is held in western lands, 
its relations to Christian civilization, its output 



CHBISTIAN MISSIONS 201 

of useful literature in China, its toleration in 
China under successive dynasties, and in con- 
clusion it was prayed that the decrees ordering 
the suppression of false and calumnious books 
and placards should be rigorously executed. 
The substance of the closing petition was granted, 
but the strange, complex organization known 
as the government of China went on its way as 
before. There were outrages here and there 
upon missionaries, converts, and chapels, verbal 
reproof, and a lingering settlement or no settle- 
ment at all. The whole " missionary question " 
was once more raised in the press of China and 
the home lands, and after strong presentation 
of both sides, no discerning observer could fail 
to perceive that here is a sociological force 
beyond the reach of any statesman or group of 
statesmen, which must of necessity be allowed 
to work itself out. 

A Wonderful Awakening. — Meantime the num- 
ber of missionaries, in spite of massacre, was 
rapidly increasing. The conference of 1890 
had called for 1000 more men, as well as a large 
reinforcement of women workers, to be sent 
out within five years. At the expiration of 
that time it was ascertained that the number of 
recruits had been 1153, but of these 505 were 
unmarried women, and 167 wives of mission- 
aries. In view of the increasing need the com- 
mittee renewed the appeal in stirring terms. 
There was a great awakening in Manchuria, 



202 BEX CHBISTUS 

where the people, being largely immigrants from 
other provinces, appeared to be more accessible 
to new ideas and to Christianity than else- 
where. 

The first provincial union of the growing 
Christian Endeavor Society was organized in 
Canton by Rev. A. A. Fulton. Great conven- 
tions under the lead of Mr. John R. Mott and 
others were held at many accessible points, and 
both Chinese and foreigners were deeply moved; 
for this was rightly felt to be the promise and 
potency of much greater things yet to come. 
The work of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation began to be heard of in China, a youthful 
giant which will expand with the new century 
till it fills all the land. 

The Anti-Foot-binding Society. — All mission- 
aries have always been opposed to Chinese 
foot-binding, but in these years, under the lead 
of Mrs. Alicia Little, the wife of a British mer- 
chant, the matter was taken up in earnest by the 
foreign community ladies, and in a wonderfully 
short time a great public sentiment had been 
developed among the Chinese themselves, espe- 
cially the highest officials, many of whom gave 
great impetus to the movement. The society 
which these ladies organized had the enterprise 
and audacity to try to get the matter before 
the emperor and the empress dowager, but 
their memorial was politely stifled in the ar- 
chives of the Tsung Li Yamen. No one could 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 203 

then have been made to believe that within a 
few years the empress dowager herself would 
openly advocate this reform, as has recently 
happened. 

Other Reforms. — The hostile province of Hu- 
nan, by the operation of natural and inevitable 
causes, was " opened," just as China itself had 
been, two generations before, and began to 
clamor for more light. A hundred copies of 
the Review of the Times were ordered, and 
the services of able men were asked to help 
dispel the darkness. All this was but casting 
up a highway for the diffusion of the light of 
the gospel. There were reform societies organ- 
ized even among the Hanlins of Peking, and 
there were signs of the possibility of a new life 
everywhere. The railway from Tientsin to 
Peking was completed at once and proved an 
immense success, while the Lu Han line from 
the capital to Hankow was pushed forward. 
Yet the years following the treaty at the close 
of the war with Japan were, on the whole, a 
time of continued disappointment to the friends 
of China. There was no serious effort to make 
the indispensable changes without which it was 
doubtful whether the empire could longer be 
held together. 

China in Convulsion. — We have thus far fol- 
lowed the Protestant missionary effort from its 
beginnings down nearly to the close of the 
nineteenth century, and have seen the little one 



204 BEX CHRISTUS 

become a thousand, and the small one a strong 
nation. For the next quadrennium the story 
of that effort is so implicated with the political 
history of the Chinese Empire that it is impos- 
sible even to understand the former without 
adequate knowledge of the latter. Merely to 
recapitulate in outline the events which led to 
the emperor's attempt at reform in 1898, leading 
to his overthrow in September of that year, and 
the counterblast of the empress dowager in the 
year and a half following, would expand the 
remainder of this chapter into a volume, and 
would, after all, convey no correct impression. 
It is therefore necessary to refer the reader to 
fuller sources of information elsewhere, while we 
confine ourselves to a few general observations, 
of the justice of which the discriminating stu- 
dent must be his own judge. 

The convulsion which shook China to its 
foundations was due to general causes, slow in 
their operation, but inevitable in their results. 
It was the impact of the Middle Ages with the 
developed Christian commercial civilization of 
the nineteenth century, albeit accompanied with 
many incidental elements which were neither 
Christian nor in the true sense civilized. If 
Christianity had never come to China at all, 
some such collision must have occurred, unless 
both Manchus and Chinese had shown them- 
selves more ready to adapt themselves to the 
altered condition of a new time than has ever 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 205 

heretofore been the case. All impulse toward 
the real renovation of China came /rom without. 
Every force from within had long since been 
exhausted and more than exhausted. Making 
all allowance for every influence brought to bear 
upon China anywhere and at any time, we find 
those which had their origin in Christianity 
far to outweigh all the rest. Attention has 
been repeatedly called to the wide missionary 
itineration, the unceasing efforts at evangeliz- 
ing all parts of the empire, the universal circu- 
lation of the scriptures, and especially the 
magazines, particularly the Review of the Times, 
and other publications of the Diffusion Society. 
These had penetrated China as aqueous vapor 
pervades the atmosphere, making indeed no 
external display, but preparing the way for 
future precipitation. 

In the beginning of 1898 the emperor sent 
for books to the number of 129, a full list of 
which was published in the report of the Dif- 
fusion Society for that year, beginning with Dr. 
Faber's " Civilization," already mentioned, and 
ending with a " Child's Prayer." If, we repeat, 
there had been no missionary effort in China, 
that empire would still have been brought into 
collision with the rest of the world, but there 
would then have been only destructive and no 
constructive forces brought into action. It is 
the peculiarity and the glory of Christianity to 
show how a nation and a race, as well as an 



206 BEX CHRISTUS 

individual, may be regenerated. The hostility 
of the Chinese people was first of all toward 
foreigners as such, by whom they saw, or sup- 
posed themselves to see, their empire despoiled. 
But there was also a large residuum of that natu- 
ral antipathy of the human heart to any divine 
teaching which uncompromisingly points out 
weaknesses and faults, and which is no respecter 
of person. Amid the varied action of so many 
agents it is vain to deny that Christianity has 
sometimes been so presented as to be misrepre- 
sented, but on the whole there had for some 
time been a marked and a growing friendliness 
on the part of both people and officials, which 
not infrequently led missionaries to the erroneous 
conclusion that the days of their mourning 
v/ere now ended. The semi-political adminis- 
tration of the Roman Catholic church in China 
unquestionably excited the active animosity of 
many who were either outwardly amicable, or 
at least neutral toward Protestants. Of this 
fact there were innumerable examples during a 
series of years, and these continue down to the 
present time. 

The Great Boxer Rising 

This began in the early summer of 1899 
(preludes having, however, been experienced in 
different places earlier) and it continued with 
intermittent sequence for fifteen months or 
more. It was in many respects one of the 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 207 

most unique phenomena of the century. In 
the regions where it originated and where its 
withering influence was longest felt, it almost 
paralyzed its victims with fear. When, in 
accordance with orders from Peking, the 
Christians were commanded to recant or to 
die, Chinese ideas of obedience to the properly 
constituted authorities impelled multitudes to 
a formal compliance who had no wish to deny 
their faith. This was especially the case in 
Shantung, where the long-continued strain was 
most felt, and where the alluring phrase " tem- 
porarily abjure " was employed in official proc- 
lamations. Many Christians chose rather to 
fly from the storm, becoming wanderers and 
fugitives on the face of the earth, rather than 
send in to the yamen ^yritten notice of the 
recantation. But the greater number, unable 
to take with them their families, unwilling to 
abandon their parents, and filled with corrod- 
ing anxiety about their scanty but precious 
possessions, fell into the cunningly laid trap, 
and did what was demanded. A certain pro- 
portion went to the temples as well, for, having 
been forced to take the first step, they found no 
place for pause. This, however, was far from 
universal. It is probable that the instruction 
of nearly all the Christians had been defective 
in regard to the right course of action to be 
taken under these crucial circumstances. 

In Chihli, Manchuria, and Shansi the coming 



208 BEX CHBI8TUS 

of tlie fearful storm was far more sudden, 
frequently resembling a typhoon, which, unan- 
nounced, overwhelms its victims in remediless 
ruin. There is scarcely any form, of cruelty 
known to the Chinese which was not practised 
upon these terribly persecuted sheep without 
shepherds. Great numbers resisted every effort 
to make them renounce their faith, though they 
were sometimes buried alive by degrees, oppor- 
tunity being given at different stages of the 
process to save themselves. In other instances 
they were roasted to death with kerosene, or 
hacked into small pieces with swords, their 
bodies thrown into running streams, or burned 
to ashes which were ground under heavy rollers, 
to prevent the victims from rising within three 
days from the dead tmd exacting vengeance. 
These cases of loyalty to their divine Master 
were well matched by a similar fidelity to their 
missionary friends, for whom many Christians 
willingly gave their own lives, although they 
were aware that the offering would not avail to 
save them. The numerous examples of this 
sort have presented the character of the Chris- 
tianized Chinese in a new light, and the whole 
horrible experience has been an appendix to 
the Acts of the Apostles and to the eleventh 
chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The 
literature of the Christian church has been per- 
manently enriched by these records, constantly 
increasing in number and variety. To them 



CHBISTIAN MISSIONS 209 

the interested reader must be referred for a 
more adequate summar}^, as well as for details. 
The devastating Boxer cyclone cost the lives 
of 135 adult Protestant missionaries, and 53 chil- 
dren ; of 35 Roman Catholic Fathers, and nine 
Sisters. The Protestants were in connection 
with ten different missions, one being uncon- 
nected. They were murdered in four provinces 
and in Mongolia, and belonged to Great Britain, 
the United States, and Sweden. No such out- 
break against Christianity has been seen in 
modern times. The destruction of property 
was on the same continental scale. Generally 
speaking all mission stations north of the 
Yellow River, with all their dwelling-houses, 
chapels, hospitals, dispensaries, schools, and 
buildings of every description were totally de- 
stroyed, though there were occasional excep- 
tions, of which the village where these pages 
are written was one. The central and south- 
ern portions of the empire were only partially 
affected by the anti-foreign madness, not be- 
cause they were under different conditions, but 
mainly through the strong repressive measures 
of four men, Liu K'un Yi and Chang Chih 
Tung, governors-general of the four great prov- 
inces in the Yang-tse valley ; Yuan Sbih K'ai 
in Shantung, and a Manchu, Tuan Fang, in 
Shensi. The jurisdiction of this quartette made 
an impassable barrier across which the move- 
ment was unable- to project itself in force, but 



210 BEX CHBISTUS 

much mischief in an isolated way was wrought 
in nearly every part of China not rigorously 
controlled. 

Effect on the Native Church. — The havoc 
wrought in all mission plants was a symbol of 
the devastation in the native church. In many 
places it was dispersed to all the winds of 
heaven. In othersit was literally exterminated. 
Many unworthy members hastened to withdraw 
from its connection when trouble came; but 
it is a significant fact that perhaps quite as 
many others who had waxed lukewarm and 
had been dropped from the rolls, finding no 
discrimination made b}^ Boxers between them 
and others in better church standing, came to 
the conclusion that if they were to be pillaged 
and threatened as Christians, in spite of their 
record, they might as well he Christians to 
make sure of some refuge in the beyond, even 
if none were to be found here ! The suffer- 
ings of the poor, harassed, tempest-tossed wan- 
derers were most pitiful, subjected alike to the 
insults of their bitterest enemies and the taunts 
of their relatives and neighbors. " Where now 
is that Den-of-lions and Fiery-furnace Jesus 
of 3^ours ? Ask him to come and untie you ! " 
said a scoffing spectator to one who had been 
seized and bound, and was expecting execution. 
Nothing was more common than for own daugh- 
ters to refuse their aged mothers a temporary 
shelter from pursuit. " No ! You cannot come 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 211 

in here and implicate us. Go to your foreign- 
religion friends ; no doubt they will look after 
you ! " 

But much worse trials were yet to come. 
When at length the tide slowly turned, the 
Boxer leaders proscribed, and the plunderers 
of Christians in danger of arrest and heavy 
fines, then arose fierce temptations to which 
many, alas, succumbed — the thirst for that 
revenge so dear to the Chinese heart, and so 
insistently inculcated in the classics. In regions 
where the conditions admitted of it, it was so 
easy to loot without fear of consequences, the 
possibilities of extortion loomed so large and 
appeared so attractive ! The indemnities which 
were freely paid by the Chinese government, 
or by local officials, proved to many a greater 
snare than Boxer threats or imperial edicts. 
One's vanished possessions rose in one's estima- 
tion after they had taken their flight. What 
more natural than to persuade oneself awy 
amount attainable would not be too much for 
what had been suffered? The quarrels and 
heart-burnings in the process of the division 
of whatever allowance had been made by way of 
reparation for wrongs were a far harder test of 
Christian faith than the sudden necessity for a 
decision to recant and live or to refuse and 
die. These temptations, perils, sins need to be 
set before us in a clear lime-light to make it 
plain what tests the native church in China has 



212 BEX CHBISTUS 

passed through before the Boxer madness, while 
it lasted, and especially since. These conditions 
brought the best men in those churches to the 
front, and showed them as pure gold tried in 
the fire. The mercy of the Lord did not al- 
together deprive them of their foreign teachers, 
as the latter were only for a time withdrawn. 
When they returned, the great task of strength- 
ening the -things which remain began in earnest, 
and this has been going on ever since. The 
Chinese church is not yet strong enough to 
stand entirely alone, but it is far stronger and 
more self-conscious of the eternal indwelling 
Spirit than ever before. It has learned the 
power of God to keep the soul in times of 
deadly peril, and to enable the weakest to give 
the strongest testimony. It has learned by 
humiliation and confession to put away its 
sins, and to gird itself for new conflicts and 
new victories. 

The public and honorable funerals given in 
provincial capitals and elsewhere, not to the 
foreign martyrs only, but also to the Chi- 
nese, attended as they were by the highest offi- 
cials, and conducted with punctilious Oriental 
ceremon}^, have, from a native point of view, 
placed the church before the people of China in 
an altogether new light. Its ablest leaders are 
more trustworthy men than before their trials, 
and the body of believers has a unity and a 
cohesiveness which will certainly bear fruit in 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 213 

the not distant future. It is especially note- 
worthy that in the most important cities, 
as a direct result of the unequalled opportuni- 
ties afforded by the total and simultaneous 
destruction of all mission property, in the ensu- 
ing reconstruction everything was on a larger 
scale than before, and one far better adapted to 
the needs of the work. Mission compounds 
which had long been straitened with no hope 
of relief were at once doubled in size, or more 
than doubled, and the outcome of the effort to 
extirpate missionaries and expel all foreigners 
has been such improvements in mission plants 
as might not otherwise have been realized in a 
century. 

The Aftermath. — It is a typical Chinese fact 
that two full years after the Boxer delusion had 
been exposed, discredited, and extinguished in 
the provinces which gave it birth, the move- 
ment took firm root once more in remote Ssu- 
ch'uan, with the familiar phenomena so often 
seen elsewhere. Large bands practised by 
night and by day, the wildest plans were laid 
for driving out and exterminating foreigners 
and delivering China. Chapels were destroyed. 
Christians looted, and many of them killed. 
But for the presence of an able and energetic 
governor-general, the whole province would 
have been swept into the madness. Sporadic 
outbreaks have occurred elsewhere, but it is 
certain that they are no longer encouraged by 



214 BEX CRBISTUS 

the responsible officials, and most of them come 
to an early end. There is no doubt that, accom- 
panied as it is by heavy exactions for the benefit 
of the mandarins, the foreign indemnity presses 
hard upon China, and will do so for a genera- 
tion yet to come. What that period may bring 
forth, no one is qualified to say. The political 
horizon is full of clouds, and the impending 
crisis may involve changes in the rulers of the 
empire. But whatever happens, the Chinese 
people will remain, and it is certain that they 
cannot long remain as they now are. 

All signs indicate that China is open as never 
before. Foreign languages are eagerly studied 
in the very cities where, but a short time since, 
all foreigners were killed. There is an unprec- 
edented demand for the publications of all the 
presses. Bibles, tracts, and the books and maga- 
zines of the Diffusion Society, the sales of which 
increased from a little over $12,000 worth (Mex- 
ican) in 1897, to more than $33,000 worth in 
1902. It is supposed that text-books to the value 
of perhaps a quarter of a million of dollars 
were sold in Shanghai in that year. The Pres- 
byterian Press received four commissions for 
books from the capital of Ssuch'uan, one of them 
by telegraph, ordering books to be sent by mail, 
though the postage bill alone amounted to 
$328 ! At a dinner-party given in that year in 
Pao Ting Fu to officials and to missiojiaries by 
Yuan Shih K'ai, then governor of Shantung and 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 215 

now viceroy of Chihli, on his departure for his 
new post, he made the interesting statement 
that upon inquiry lie had found that mission- 
aries were always in the vanguard of progress 
in all lands, and that he was therefore glad to 
welcome them at his table. But inasmuch as 
there were no books in Chinese to give such in- 
formation as the officials generally sought about 
the rise and progress of Christianity, he had 
taken the Bible and a boxful of Protestant and 
Roman Catholic books in Chinese, and had sent 
them to a Chinese doctor in literature whom he 
had engaged to read them through, and then 
write a brief digest of the whole. Some time 
later he brought the result to Dr. Richard in 
Peking, and asked him to revise them before 
they should be published. This revision was 
greatly needed, as they contained undigested 
fragments from the Old and New Testaments, 
from Protestant and Roman Catholic writers, 
and from the records of the Foreign Office. 
This incident, mentioned by Dr. Richard in his 
report of the Diffusion Society, exhibits in a 
striking manner China's need of more light. 

According to German statistics, quoted by 
Mr. Beach in his " Geography of Protestant Mis- 
sions," the total number of foreign missionaries 
in China at the beginning of 1900 was 2785, 
of whom 610 were ordained, 773 were wives of 
missionaries, and 825 other ladies. There were 
162 male physicians and 79 women. The aggre- 



216 BEX CHBISTUS 

gate of native workers was 6388, and the total 
number of native Christians 112,808, of which 
the province of Fukien contained more than 
25,000; Kuangtung, 15,000; Manchuria, 9900 ; 
Chekiang, 9250 ; Chihli, 8000 ; Hupeh, 4650 ; 
and Kiangsi, 4570. The number of differ- 
ent organizations working in the empire had 
increased from the forty of 1890 to sixty-seven. 
Since the restoration of the empire to order and 
quiet, the number of missionaries is again on 
the increase, and by the time of the next con- 
ference (which was to have been held in 1901), 
there will have been an expansion in every 
direction such as, at the beginning of mission 
work a hundred years previous, would have 
been beyond the bounds of the wildest imagina- 
tion. But even at that early date it was not 
beyond the limits of the faith of those whose 
motto, like that of Carey, was "Ask great things 
of God ; expect great things of God." 

SIGNIFICANT SENTENCES 

It is impossible to raise the men of the East "unless the 
■women are raised, and real converts among Asiatic 
women, especially among the Chinese, m.ake admirable 
Christians. — Isabella Bird Bishop. 

I fully believe that until the gospel is im^^lanted in the 
hearts of those who are to rule the homes there cannot be 
a great awakening of the men and boys. We have in- 
stances where men have been church members for some 
time and have never taught their families; but I have 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 217 

noticed that when the women receive the glad tidings it 
is not long before these homes are acquainted with the 
fact. — Mrs. E. C. Titus. 

Much has been said about sending ladies to China as 
missionaries. Possibly, if I had never seen the ladies at 
work, I might agree with these critics, but the truth is 
that they do the hardest part and the most of the work in 
China. The teaching of the children and the nursing 
and treating of the sick women and children, surgical and 
medical, fall to their lot. I have not space to praise 
them here, and I could not say sufficient good of them if 
I had. — Hon. Charles Denbt. 

Bondage to Custom 

Engagements are almost as binding as marriages in 
China. . . . Yet what shall we say to the case of a 
dainty little hospital assistant, a bright and winning girl, 
who is betrothed to an idiot who cannot walk without 
assistance, and who makes awful faces when he tries to 
speak his unintelligible jargon? This betrothal took 
place because the girl's father liked the boy's grandfather, 
who is now dead, and so are both the girl's parents. 
What can be done ? I believe the cure will come in time 
by an enlightened generation of Christians refusing to 
make infantile betrothals. — Mrs. Arnold Foster. 

One Out oe Five 

One fifth of all the women of the world are found in \ 
the homes of China. One baby girl out of every five is 
cradled in a Chinese mother's arms unwelcomed and un- [ 
loved, unless by that poor mother's heart. One little • 
maiden out of every five grows up in ignorance and neg- 
lect, drudging in the daily toil of some poor Chinese 
family, or crying over the pain of her crippled feet in the 
seclusion of a wealthier home. Among all the youthful 



218 BEX CHRISTUS 

brides, who day by day pass from the shelter of their 
childhood's home, one out of every five goes weeping in 
China to the tyranny of the mother-in-law she dreads, 
and the indifference of a husband she has never seen. Of 
all the wives and mothers in the world, one out of every 
five turns in her longing to a gilded goddess of mercy in 
some Chinese temple, counting her beads and murmuring 
her meaningless prayer. Of all the women who weep, 
one out of every five weeps alone, uncomf orted, in China. 
Out of every five who lie upon beds of pain, one is wholly 
at the mercy of Chinese ignorance and superstition. One 
out of every five, at the close of earthly life, passes into 
the shadow and terror that surround a Chinese grave, 
never having heard of Him who alone can rob death of 
its sting. One fifth of all the women are waiting, wait- 
ing in China, for the Saviour who so long has waited for 
them. What a burden of responsibility does this lay 
upon us — the women of Christendom ! 

— Mrs. F. Howard Taylor. 

Were the women only converted we believe that idol- 
atry would soon cease out of the land. 

— William Muirhead. 

Nearly one half of the women of the world belong to 
the two great empires of China and India. . . . The 
women conserve the ancient religions and superstitions 
of their country; and what can a man do when the 
women of the household are against him? 

— IsABELLE Williamson. 

The word " home," which is unthinkable by us apart 
from the tender ministry of woman, is represented in the 
Chinese language by a pig under a roof. In most cases 
it is an accurate description of the Chinese home, which 
to our eyes is often little better than a pigsty. Of course 
the Chinaman does not mean to satirize his home. To 
him the pig is the symbol of " plenty." . . . Again, our 



CRBISTIAN MISSIONS ' 219 

sense of all that is sacred receives a severe shock when 
we discover that the word " marriage " is represented by 
a woman and a pig practically under the same roof. . . . 
Until we have a race of Christian mothers in the homes 
we despair of producing a high type of Christian char- 
acter among the members of the native church. 

— J. Miller Graham. 

THEMES FOR STUDY OR DISCUSSIOl!^" 

I. "Women's Work for their Sisters in China. 
II. Some ]!^otable Women Missionaries in China, 
m. Chinese Women as Christian Workers. 
TV. Schools for Girls in China. 
Y. Young Men's Christian Associations and Christian 

Endeavor Societies. 
VI. Peking and banking as Educational Centres. 
Vli. Yung Wing and His Chinese Boys in the United 
States. 
Yin. Lessons Learned from the War with Japan. 
IX. Brewing of the Boxer Storm. 
X. Compare the Empress Dowager with Catherine II 

of Rnssia. 
XL The Siege of Peking. 
Xn. Message of the Martyrs. 

BOOKS OF REFERENCE 

General References as before 

Berry's " Sister Martyrs of Ku Cheng." II, HI. 
Broomhall's " Martyrs of China Inland Mission." IX, XII. 
Chang Chih Tung, " China's Only Hope." YIIL 
Condit's " The Chinaman as We See Him." Ill, Y, 

\l, YII. 
"Crisis in China" (reprint of articles in North American 

Review}. YIII, IX. 
Edwards's " Fire and Sword in Shansi." U, IX, XH. 



220 BEX CHBISTUS 

Foster's " Christian Progress in China." I, II, III, IT. 

Graham's " East of the Barrier." I, IX. 

Graves's " Forty Years in China." VIII. 

Ketler's " The Tragedy of Paotingfu." II, VIII, IX, X, 

XI, XII. 
Lewis's " Educational Conquest of the Far East." VIII, 

IX. 
Martin's " The Chinese." VI. 
Miner's " Two Heroes of Cathay." IX. 
Mott's " Strategic Pointe in the World's Conquest." V. 
Report of the Ecumeni^l Missionary Conference, 1900. 

I, II, III, IV, V, VI. 
Ross's " Mission Methods in Manchuria." VIII. 
Smith's " China in Convulsion." VIII, IX, X, XI, XII. 
Wilson's " China." VII, VIII, IX, X, XI. 

Articles on China in Periodicals (see Appendix) : — 

Contemporary, Vol. 76, " Reform of China and the Revo 

lution of 1898." IX. 
Forum, Vol. 18, " Significance of the China-Japan War." 

VIII. 
Review of Reviews^ Vol. 22, " The Chinese Revolution." 

IX. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE OPEN DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY 

The Chinese Empire is by far the most ex- 
tensive field ever opened to the conquests of 
the church of God. Gibbon estimated that the 
Roman Empire contained 120,000,000 persons ; 
but it is certain that China has a population be- 
tween three and four times as great. This unex- 
ampled magnitude, which at times seems almost 
overwhelming, is accompanied and conditioned 
by a homogeneity, which, whether we consider 
its duration in time or its persistence, is a phe- 
nomenon unparalleled among the nations of 
history. Amid all their endless diversities the 
ideas and the ideals of the Chinese people are 
substantially the same. In this respect China 
is antipodal to that museum of races, languages, 
religions, and civilizations, to which we give the 
merely geographical appellation of India. In 
China influences can be propagated from one 
extremity of the empire to the other, to which 
difference of race and language would elsewhere 
be an almost complete barrier. According to 
the best estimates the mandarin dialect alone, 
in some one of its forms, is spoken by three hun- 
221 



222 BEX CHBISTUS 

dred millions of Chinese. Countless prefectures 
and even single counties have a population greatly 
in excess of that of whole groups of Polynesian 
islands. It should be especially noted that the 
greatest specific hindrance which the gospel 
encounters in India is altogether absent in 
China, which never had a system of caste and 
would never have submitted to it. The Chinese 
have always been a race religiously tolerant. 
They are a marvellous example of unity in diver- 
sity and diversity in unity. They have repeat- 
edly shown themselves to be hospitable to new 
religious ideas, as is shown by the rapid and 
universal spread of Buddhism, and also by the 
root struck into Chinese soil by Nestorianism 
and the mediceval Roman Catholic missions, each 
of which failed from internal rather than from 
external causes. Had Chinese Mohammedanism 
been a missionar}^ religion, perhaps it might long 
since have taken possession of China. There is 
a powerful democratic element in Chinese so- 
ciety to which no adequate justice has yet been 
done. 

No people were ever more easily governed 
than the Chinese, when the government has 
been in the direction of their ideals. Feeling 
the inadequacy of the current faiths — or no 
faiths — they have originated a bewildering 
multitude of secret sects, with which the empire 
is literally honeycombed. Probably not more 
than a small number of them are really political 



THE OPEN DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY 223 

in their ultimate aims; but while the government 
forbids them all alike, it finds itself powerless to 
put them down. Seriously to attempt it on a 
large scale might, and probably would, cause a 
revolution, in which new rulers would take the 
helm of the ship of state, after which the secret 
sects would flourish as before. The practical 
Chinese have a wonderful talent for compromise. 
They dislike to press things to extremities. It 
is a universally accepted axiom that if a single 
individual is willing to sacrifice his life, ten 
thousand men cannot hinder him. 

The once almost impassable barrier of the 
Chinese language has been completely scaled, as 
well as tunnelled. It is extremely rare that one 
otherwise fitted for work in China is obliged to 
give up that ambition through inability to mas- 
ter the colloquial speech. A great and rapidly 
increasing Christian plant has been set up in 
every part of China. Almost every corner of 
the empire has been penetrated again and again. 
The experience of thousands of workers has 
been funded and put at compound interest. As 
compared with a century ago we have of China 
and the Chinese a vast, a varied, and an aug- 
menting knowledge. 

The real motive of Christianity in pressing 
itself upon China is beginning to be dimly ap- 
prehended by many who until lately never heard 
of it. This is indeed a slow process, but it is 
a process which is continually going on in the 



224 BEX CRBISTUS 

minds of men, and of women as well, in all 
ranks of life, from the empress dowager to the 
peasants grinding at a mill. Race hatred and 
suspicion survive, and increase too, after their 
kind, and will continue to survive after eeons 
shall have passed away; but in spite of them 
Christianity gets a better, a fairer, a fuller hear- 
ing than before, with each new advance. 

A Modern Miracle. — The survival of the 
Christian church notv/ithstanding the fierce 
onslaught of Boxer fanaticism, armed with 
illimitable supernatural powers and backed by 
the highest authority in the empire, is a stand- 
ing miracle which invites examination and com- 
pels explanation. Since the foreign soldiers, as 
a rule, neither knew nor cared anything about 
the Chinese Christian church, it cannot be ex- 
plained as due to force of arms. It cannot be 
charged to diplomatic patronage, for in the final 
treaties between the Powers and China, mis- 
sionary interests were studiously ignored. Had 
they been raised as a living question, there was 
so much disagreement that no action could have 
been unanimous, and without unanimity there 
could have been no action at all. Why, then, 
was not the church exterminated? How came 
Chinese officials, without diplomatic pressure of 
any kind, and wholly of their own accord, to 
grant indemnities for losses to those native 
Christians of whom, but a few months before, im- 
perial edicts had commanded the slaughtering ? 



THE OPEN DOOM OF OPPORTUNITY 225 

The more it is considered, the more clearly will 
it be perceived that no story of the three chil- 
dren in the furnace of fire, or of Daniel deliv- 
ered from the hungry lions, is more worthy of 
careful investigation than the continued exist- 
ence of the Christian church under apparently 
impossible conditions. The steadfastness shown 
by many individual members of that church, 
Roman Catholic and Protestant alike, in refus- 
ing to recant, and in sealing their testimony 
with their lives, is an irrefragable argument in 
favor of the genuineness of their faith. Great 
numbers, it is true, did recant, just as we have 
too much reason to fear would be the case in 
our own land under like fiery trial, and great 
numbers of these have confessed their sin and 
weakness, and have turned unto the Lord for 
help and grace, just as like sufferers have done 
in every age. Proofs offered by genuine and 
unobtrusive martyrdom the Chinese can com- 
prehend as well as we can, and they do not 
attempt to refute them. Their existence on a 
large scale makes a background for preaching 
Christ to the Chinese, hitherto unavailable. 

A United Church. — An important incidental 
effect of the almost complete destruction in sev- 
eral provinces of the outward symbols of mission 
work, has been a marked impulse on the part of 
Protestant missions toward a greater unity, di- 
minisMng competition, economizing labor, and 
increasing the output. To what extent this 

Q 



226 BEX CHBISTUS 

may be carried cannot yet be known, but union 
educational institutions, both in Chihli and in 
Shantung, are now assured. It is not too much 
to expect in due time a practical federation of 
Christian churches in China which will present 
a united front to the enemy, and which will lead 
to the introduction of Christian influences upon 
a far larger scale than at present. Protestant 
missions with essential unanimity emphatically 
decline the offer of the Chinese government to 
confer official recognition upon their leaders. 
They refase to interfere in the ordinary pro- 
ceedings of the Chinese courts of justice. The 
fact of this settled policy is coming to be 
more and more understood by all ranks of 
Chinese officials. The opposite practice of the 
Roman Catholic church in each particular, what- 
ever advantages it may appear to give for a 
time, is making clear the fundamental differ- 
ences between these two forms of Christianity, 
and we need not fear the result. In the Boxer 
troubles Protestants suffered much because they 
were mistaken for Romanists, against whom 
there was not unreasonably much prejudice. 
It is not unlikely that the same phenomenon 
may be repeated in other forms, but the con- 
flict and the resultant discrimination seem to be 
inevitable. In the communities where they 
exist, there is an augmenting influence of the 
Christian churches, and since the Box'-r up- 
rising collapsed, this influence has greatly in- 



THE OPEN JDOOn OF OPPOBTUNITT 227 

creased. Many Chinese officials for the first 
time have come into contact with educated Chris- 
tian Chinese, and have been struck with their 
good sense, their capabilities, and their evident 
moral integrity. In China these qualities in 
combination are rare indeed. Their existence is 
a prophecy and a promise. The Chinese know 
very well how to talk about preferring righteous- 
ness to gain. But when one of their most pro- 
gressive governors is popularly believed to have 
paid a bribe of twenty thousand ounces of silver 
to the Manchu nearest the throne to get his ap- 
pointment confirmed, the spectacle of a poor 
Chinese who respectfully and modestly, but 
firmly, declines to take surreptitiously a sum of 
money which would quietly place him beyond 
the fear of poverty, is one which cannot fail to 
have its influence. China has occasionally had 
men who would do this, and one of them who 
lived and died in the Han dynasty (124 A.D.) 
is still cherished in the national memory. But 
China has never had the art of producing such 
men, and its introduction will be owing solely 
to Christianity. 

Power of Regenerated Lives. — The " out- 
populating power of the Christian stock," in- 
sisted upon more than half a century ago by 
Dr. Horace Bushnell, is a most important factor 
in the coming evangelization of China. Where 
the family is the unit of social life, as the vil- 
lage of political life, the renovation of the family 



228 BEX CHRISTUS 

is the great social problem. Christianity under- 
takes this mighty task by regenerating the 
fathers, the mothei-s, the husbands, the wives, 
the children, and the neighbors. An intelligent 
official who glanced through a small Christian 
tract explaining by scripture texts the duties of 
each of these classes to one another, remarked, 
" This is good ; if every one were to act like 
that, I should have no trouble in governing 
the people." To the five human relations of the 
Chinese, must be added, or rather prefixed, the 
divine relation between God and man, before 
society can have either an adequate basis or 
a legitimate object. 

There will be developed in an ever increasing 
ratio assistance from the Chinese themselves 
from the ranks of the native church, for it is by 
them that the real work must ultimately be 
done. The first foreign workers are of necessity 
isolated, and without helpers. With the expan- 
sion of the church as an organic and coordinated 
body, workers of all grades of efficiency will 
more and more appear. A large part of the 
future literature by which China is to be moved 
must be achieved by them. In them is the 
hope of China. The philanthropies which have 
been ancillary and subordinate to the work of 
Christian missions in China, have exerted a 
wide, a deep, and, we may well believe, a perma- 
nent influence upon the people. In the Great 
Famine of 1877-1878, and in numerous similar 



THE OPEN Boon OF OPPORTUNITY 229 

emergencies since, vast sums from abroad have 
been disbursed to needy Chinese. The methods 
of distribution have necessarily been far from 
scientific, for the problem is too profound to be 
attacked except upon its edges. An army of 
agents supplied with the revenues of an empire 
would still be altogether inadequate. We are 
for the most part quite helpless to remove the 
causes of these great calamities, which recur 
with the persistence of a repeating decimal. 
Yet something has been accomplished ; best of 
all, a great object-lesson in practical Christianity 
has been given, which has deeply affected many 
Chinese officials of great influence, and has cer- 
tainly done much to remove the prejudices of 
millions of people. The Christianization of a 
land like China proceeds, as we have seen, along 
many distinct but coordinated lines. In its 
present stage it is practically impossible to dis- 
sociate evangelism from education, and it can 
be accomplished only by the unlimited use of 
Christian literature, and of secular literature 
prepared from a Christian point of view. 

The temper of many of the officials in China 
is not unfrequently thoroughly pessimistic. 
They are profoundly dissatisfied with the condi- 
tion of their country, without being at all aware 
of the real sources of its weakness. They per- 
ceive that everything ought to be done, but the}^ 
do not clearly see how, under present conditions, 
anything can be done. As in the great coal 



230 BEX CHEISTUS 

strike in the United States, every one feels the 
pressure of the trouble, and perhaps every one 
has some more or less vague notions about its 
causes. But to the question, ''^What can we do 
about itf few have a definite answer. To 
China in this mood, twentieth century Chris- 
tianity ought to come with a clear message. 
China needs light, and those who have the 
Light of the World ought to bestow it, for it 
is evident that the hope of the empire lies in 
Christian education. 

Educational Reforms. — After much vacillation 
the government of China appears to be acting 
upon a more or less clear recognition of the need 
of radical reformation in the fossilized methods 
of the past. On the 29th of August, 1901, an 
imperial decree was issued commanding the abo- 
lition of the examination essay, or wen-cJiang^ 
for literary degrees, in favor of short essays upon 
modern matters and western laws, constitution, 
and political economy. The same procedure is 
to be observed in future in examining candidates 
for office. A similar decree commanded that the 
usual methods of conferring military degrees 
after trials of strength with stone weights, agility 
with the sword, marksmanship with the bow and 
arrow, on foot and on horseback, should be defi- 
nitely aboHshed, as having no relation to strategy 
and to that military science which for military 
officers is indispensable. Instead of the former 
methods, military academies are to be established 



TEE OPEN BOOB OF OPPOBTUNITY 231 

in the various provincial capitals, the students 
being required to be examined in their knowl- 
edge of literature as well as in military science 
and drill. In the following month a decree was 
issued commanding all existing colleges in the 
empire to be turned into schools and colleges of 
western learning, each provincial capital to have 
a university like that in Peking, the colleges in 
prefectures and districts to be tributary to those 
at the provincial capital. The system is ulti- 
mately to be completed by the general introduc- 
tion of primary schools in the villages. A few 
days later another decree was issued ordering 
the governors-general and governors to follow 
the example of Liu K'un Yi (since deceased), 
Chang Chih Tung, and others, in sending abroad 
young men of scholastic promise and ability to 
study any branch of western science or art best 
suited to their abilities and tastes, so that in 
time they might return to China and place the 
fruits of their knowledge at the service of the 
emperor. 

Thus we behold the kernel of the reforms 
ordered by his Majesty, Kuang Hsu, in 1898, 
and which led to his dethronement and impris- 
onment, substantially adopted less than three 
years later by the empress dowager and her 
advisers. It must not, however, be supposed 
that the issue of decrees like these indicates 
a steady and a consistent purpose on the part 
of the government to adopt real reforms. In 



232 BEX CHRISTUS 

many cases the responsibility for the execu- 
tion of these plans is committed to officials 
thoroughly hostile to their intent. For a long 
time to come the progress made must be so slight 
as to be scarcely discernible. The bare notation 
of the tenor of these far-reaching edicts gives to 
the Occidental reader but a vague notion of the 
tremendous intellectual revolution which they 
connote. "Never before was there such an order 
from au}^ government involving the reconstruc- 
tion of the views of so many millions, by the 
study of the methods of government in other 
nations." For a long time it had been dimly 
perceived that some changes of this description 
were inevitable, and when they came, there was 
not only no formal protest on the part of the 
people, but in Shansi when a vote was taken 
among the students at the provincial capital by 
the conservatives, they found to their astonish- 
ment that eighty per cent of the students were 
in favor of western learning ! 

The majority of those who have the supreme 
control of China to-day are unhappily pro- 
foundly ignorant of the nature of the great 
problems which that empire has to solve, and 
still more so of the processes by which alone 
there is any rational hope of their solution. 
It is obvious to one who knows anything of 
the Chinese educational system of the past 
millennium, that the introduction of the new 
methods will involve its radical reconstruction 



THE OPEN DOOR OF OPPOBTUNITT 233 

from top to bottom. Western geography, mathe- 
matics, science, history, and philosophy will be 
everywhere studied. The result cannot fail 
to be an expansion of the intellectual horizon 
of the Chinese race comparable to that which in 
Europe followed the Crusades. This will be a 
long process and a slow one, but it is a certain 
one. It is from this point of view that missionary 
education in China is seen in its true character. 
Every mission station is a dynamo, diffusing 
impartially in every direction light and heat. 
It is at once a spiritual, a moral, and an intellec- 
tual centre. In its schools pupils are educated, 
and not merely instructed ; the seeds of a new 
community are everywhere sown. From the 
Christian colleges now widely scattered over the 
face of the land young men are constantly going 
out with enlarged minds and with open vision. 
It is an instructive fact that it is only in Chris- 
tian schools that that patriotism in which the 
Chinese seem so strangely deficient is inculcated 
on principle. China will never have really patri- 
otic subjects until she has Christian subjects. 

Educational Needs. — There is scarcely a 
branch of modern education which is not ur- 
gently needed. The Chinese need to know 
in detail something of the history of the world 
of which they seem but yesterday to have be- 
come an integral part, that they may have 
correct standards of comparison. They need 
thorough instruction in political economy and 



234 ' BEX CHBISTUS 

its laws, and in every department of sociology. 
They need to know the underlying philosophy 
and principles of trade, that they may compre- 
hend and accept the proposition, incredible to 
them, that what is to the advantage of one may 
be to the advantage of all. They need espe- 
cially to study the laws of production, and ere 
long it will be necessary to ponder the laws of 
distribution. They need to examine scientifi- 
cally the incalculable resources at the disposal 
of the people, and to learn how to develop and 
employ them. They need to have the barren 
scholasticism of the learned, and the narrow 
utilitarianism of the uneducated classes, re- 
placed by real knowledge. They need medical 
teaching to save innumerable lives and to dimin- 
ish the sum of human misery. In every direc- 
tion China needs the truth to make her free. 

Christian education has produced some 
sweet first-fruits, out of all proportion to the 
number of workers. Until within a few years 
nine-tenths of the general knowledge which 
has been diffused throughout China, and ninety- 
nine hundredths of all the modern schools, are 
due to missionaries. In central China there 
are large and infiuential Christian colleges in 
Shanghai, Soochow, and Nanking ; in south- 
eastern China at Foochow and Canton ; at Teng 
Chou Fu in Shantung, and in Peking and T'ung 
Chou in the metropolitan province of Chihli. 
In the capital of Shansi (T'ai Yuan Fu) there 



THE OPEN BOOB OF OPPOBTUNITY 235 

is a unique government college founded with 
money which would otherwise have been ex- 
pended in missionary indemnities. Dr. Timothy 
Richard, at whose suggestion this step was taken, 
was placed in charge of this institution for a 
period of ten years, by the enlightened gov- 
ernor of Shansi. The government has already 
established provincial colleges in the capitals 
of eleven out of the eighteen provinces. The 
policy has been deliberate^ adopted of requir- 
ing from every student, upon penalty of ex- 
clusion, the formal worship of Confucius, which 
makes the services of Christian teachers and 
the attendance of Christian pupils impossi- 
ble. It is incidentally a testimony that the 
Chinese authorities have felt Confucianism to 
be in danger from the increasing encroachments 
of Christianity. It is not to be supposed that, 
because Confucian students are held aloof from 
immediate contact with Christian instructors 
and Christian text-books, that they can be alto- 
gether isolated (in medical phrase) so as to be 
beyond the reach of Christian influences of all 
sorts. Christian periodical literature is able to 
go where Christian feet cannot, and where the 
living voice cannot penetrate. 

In direct work with Christian students, and 
in indirect relations with non-Christian students 
of all types, the International Young Men's and 
Young Women's Christian associations have a 
unique and a most important field. Their efforts 



236 BEX CHRISTUS 

are as yet but in their preparatory stages, but are 
rapidly growing in importance and power, so that 
the good which they will be able to accomplish, 
often in silent and unobtrusive ways, is inesti- 
mable. The United Society of Christian En- 
deavor is another agency peculiarly suited to 
Chinese habits, and it has wrapped within it a 
vast potentiality of good. Its great gatherings, 
attended by a choice company of Chinese youth, 
uniting in the use of the mandarin dialect as 
" the greatest common multiple " of this strange 
language, are a natural means of conveying 
spiritual impulses to widely separated regions, 
just as in other lands, but wdth perhaps far 
greater efficiency, on account of the freshness 
of the new life which has come into many hearts, 
and the absence of many of the other avenues 
by which, in Christian lands, that life can be 
outwardly manifested. The singular solidarity 
of the Chinese and their unrivalled talent for 
organization make it certain that forms of Chris- 
tian energy like those just mentioned will ere 
long be widely adopted, and must of necessity 
be extremely efficacious in multiplying the influ- 
ence of the church. 

The New China. — The immense difficulties 
in the way of a practical regeneration of an 
empire like China must not for a moment be 
lost sight of nor minimized. Each one of them 
must ultimately be reckoned with, singly and 
in combination. But they have proved insuffi- 



THE OPEN BOOB OF OPPOETUNITT 237 

cient to stop the progress of a movement which 
has now attained to large proportions and will 
soon be far greater. It is to be anticipated that, 
at some perhaps not distant day, there may 
^be a great movement toward Christianity. No 
human prevision can foresee how or when it 
will appear, nor what shape it may take. As 
has already been pointed out, on account of its 
mass, its homogeneity, its high intellectual and 
moral qualities, its past history, its present and 
prospective relations to the whole world, the con- 
version of the Chinese people to Christianity 
is the most important aggressive enterprise now 
laid upon the church of Christ. To reply to 
the numerous objections which are and have 
always been made is, for readers of a book 
like this, a mere waste of time. They have all 
been often answered, and are at this moment 
refuted by the actual work done. To abandon 
a field because new and unexpected difficulties 
have arisen is not in accord with the genius of 
Christianity. Merchants, surveyors of Chinese 
railways, and openers of its new mines are all 
liable to be overtaken by mobs and violence, 
yet they do not surrender their coveted conces- 
sions, and neither shall we. As compared with 
the expenditures of enterprises like these, and 
still more in comparison with the costly military 
disbursements, the total sum required for all the 
missions in the Chinese Empire is a mere trifle. 
In results achieved and achievable the returns 



238 BEX CHBISTUS 

to be expected from the latter far outweigh 
those which can, by any possibility, arise from 
the former. That there is to be commercially, 
industrially, and in some shape politically, a new 
China is certain. When such a population is 
really revolutionized, the whole world must be 
affected by the tremendous change, No more 
lands now remain to be discovered and peopled ; 
but as Dr. Josiah Strong well remarks, to raise 
the scale of living in China to the average 
standard in the United States, would be equiva- 
lent to the creation of five Americas. In mod- 
ern economics nothing is considered to be too 
expensive which is worth while. Ten millions 
of dollars are spent for a dam on the Nile, but in 
a short time — perhaps annually — it will repay 
its cost and make Eg3^pt again the garden of 
the earth. A hundred or two millions of dollars 
are voted for a canal, but it is to alter the trade 
routes of the globe and bring, as never before, 
the Orient and the Occident face to face. 

Money, labor, prayer, lavished upon the re- 
demption of the great Chinese Empire, in the 
end will yield ampler returns than can be looked 
for in any other land. Upon the people of the 
United States China has an especial claim. 
"Who is my neighbor?" China. Owing to her 
geographical position, if for no other reason, our 
country has never had any territorial disputes 
with her. The United States has no "conces- 
sions" to be protected at the open ports, no 



THE OPEN DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY 239 

"spheres of influence," no "earth hunger." 
Our treatment of the Chinese in our own coun- 
try has been full of injustice, and of an undis- 
guised contempt for the principles upon which 
our republic is ostensibly founded. Do we not 
owe to the Chinese people practical reparation, 
in the gift of the fuller knowledge of that which 
shall help them to become, like ourselves, wise 
and strong '? 

Perhaps it might be difficult to find in any 
land a class upon which more and greater bless- 
ings have been lavished than the women of the 
United States. But these great gifts are a loan, 
and, upon the principle enunciated by the Mas- 
ter, they only mean that by Him the more will 
be required, — assistance, sympathy, prayers for 
those in less favored lands. To our country- 
women the innumerable millions of Chinese 
women and children mutely and unconsciously 
appeal. "Freely ye have received, freely give." 

Their experience of universal popular educa- 
tion gives American missionaries important ad- 
vantages, and a corresponding responsibility. 
Nearly all the large missionary colleges in China 
were built by American societies, and are taught 
by American teachers. It would be difficult to 
find anywhere positions of greater importance. 
China has many needs. She needs new intel- 
lectual life of every description in every fibre of 
the body politic. But she needs still more a 
new moral and spiritual life, without which a 



240 BEX CHBISTUS 

merely intellectual renaissance will be full of 
deadly perils. Every renovating force from 
vtdthin has long been exhausted, and more than 
exhausted. Her religions, her nature worship, 
her hero worship, her ethical traditions, are life- 
less and spent. Commerce, science, diplomacy, 
culture, civilization, she must have in ever in- 
creasing measure ; but apart from Christianity 
they are a Pandora box of potential evils. 
Aside from Christianity there is no visible hope 
for China. With it, after age-long slumbers, 
she will awake to a new life in a new world. 

If this book does not lead up to the question 
in the mind of the reader, " What can I do for 
the redemption of China?" it will have been 
written and read in vain. 

SIGNIFICANT SENTENCES 

I admire and reverence those devoted men and women 
[the missionaries], and I regard them as taking to China 
precisely the commodities of which she stands most in 
need, namely, a spiritual religion and a morality based 
on the fear of God and the love of man. — Sir Edwin 
Arnold. 

I went to the East with no enthusiasm as to missionary 
enterprise. I came back with the fixed conviction that 
missionaries are the great agents of civilization. I could 
not have advanced one step in the discharge of my duties, 
could not have read, or written, or understood one word 
of correspondence on treaty stipulation but for the mis- 
sionaries. — Hon. W. B. K,eed, United States Commis- 
sioner. 



THE OPEN noon OF OPPOBTUNITT 241 

There can be no doubt that while American commerce 
has been relatively declining in China, American missions 
have been relatively increasing. The factor of missions 
is to be reckoned with as much as the factor of trade. . . 
American missionaries have been free from the suspicion 
of acting as political allies ; and they thus possess a de- 
cided advantage in attracting the natives to an honest 
acceptance of the Christian religion. — Forum, April, 1899. 

We cannot think of withdrawing our missionaries from 
the Far East unless we are willing to withdraw our mer- 
chants. Our ministers of the gospel must remain as long 
as our ministers of diplomacy. — Hon. John Barrett. 

Should he [a voyager] be shipwrecked on an unknown 
coast, he will devoutly pray that the missionary may have 
preceded him, — Charles Darwin. 

Everything that has been done for the blind in China, 
or any other eastern land, has been done by missionaries. 
Miss Gordon Cumming said she was astonished, when 
visiting Peking, to stand at the door of a dark room and 
hear the Scriptures read by the touch of men who, not 
four months before, begged in the streets, half naked and 
half starved. The missionary has done this work alone, 
from his slender income, boarding, lodging, and clothing 
his pupils. 

Until one travels from Canton to Kalgan and takes 
long journeys into the interior, one cannot realize the 
extent of this wonderful work, or the resourcefulness of 
the missionaries. Nor can one realize the hold which 
the missionary has upon the future of China. He has 
not only established churches and planted schools; he 
has written books and translated other books, and intro- 
duced western arts and sciences, and pioneered the way 
for commerce and civilization. . . . The missionary is 

B 



242 MEX CHBISTUS 

unsealing the Chinaman's ears, that he may hear the 
tramp of the advancing nations of the twentieth century. 

— Dr. F. E. Clark. 

I believe the advancement of civilization, the extension 
of commerce, the increase of knowledge in art, science, 
and literature, the promotion of civil and religious liberty, 
the development of countries rich in undiscovered min- 
eral and vegetable wealth, are all intimately identified 
with, and to a much larger extent than most people are 
aware of, dependent upon, the work of the missionary; 
and I hold that the missionary has done more to civilize 
and to benefit the heathen world than any or all other 
agencies ever employed. — Alexander Mc Arthur, M.P. 

This is the crack of doom for Paganism. 

— Dr. W. a. p. Martin, on the Boxer uprising. 

They climbed the steep ascent of heaven 

Through peril, toil, and pain; 
O God, to us may grace be given 

To follow in their train. — Eeginald Heber. 

Lo, these shall come from far ; and lo, these from the 
north and from the west; and these from the land of 
Sinim. — Isaiah. 

THEMES FOR STUDY OR DISCUSSION 

I. China in Convulsion. 
II. Kuang Hsu and His Schemes for Reform. 

III. Ladies of the Legations at the Court of the 

Empress Dowager. 

IV. Li Hung Chang and Other Eminent Viceroys. 

V. Chinese Scholars and Statesmen in the United 
States. 
VI. The United States as a Maker and Breaker of 
Treaties with China. 



THE OPEN DOOR OF OPPOBTVNITY 243 

Vn. Russia's Occupation of Manchuria. 
Vin. The " Yellow Peril " and the " Yellow Hope." 
IX. Men of Might who have shaped the Future of 
China. 
X. How Missions have Helped in Diplomacy, Phi- 
lanthropy, and Social Progress. 
XI. Outlook for Chinese Women in the Twentieth 

Century. 
Xn. Coordination of Christian Forces in China. 

BOOKS OF REFEEENCE 

General References as before 

Bishop's " The Yangtze YaRey and Beyond." XI, XH. 
Bryson's "John Kenneth Mackenzie." IX, X. 
Condit's " The Chinaman as We see Him." V, VI. 
Chang Chih Tung's " China's Only Hope." IV, V, VHL 
Colquhomi's " China in Transformation." I, VTI, VIII. 
Coltman's " The Chinese." X. 
Creegan's " Great Missionaries of the Church." IX. 
« Crisis in China." VIH, IX. 

Curzon's " Problems of the Far East." II, HI, VIH, IX. 
Douglas's " Li Hung Chang." IV. 
Gibson's " The Chinese in America." V, VI. 
Gilmour's " Among the Mongols." IX, X, XII. 
Hake's " The Story of Chinese Gordon." IX. 
Johnston's " China and Its Future." IX, X, XII. 
Ketler's " The Tragedy of Paotingf u." IX, XII. 
Lawrence's " Modern Missions in the East." IX, X. 
Leonard's "A Hundred Years of Missions." IX, X. 
Lewis's "Educational Conquest of the Far East." IV, 

X, xn. 

Mackay's " From Far Formosa." IX. 
ISTevius's " Life of John L. iN'evius." IX. 
Report of the Ecumenical Missionary Conference, 1900. 
IV, V, IX, X, XI, XIL 



244 BEX CHBISTUS 

Robson's " Griffith John." IX. 

Smith's " China in Convulsion." I. 

Speer's " The Oldest and the Newest Empire." VI. 

Speer's " Missions and Politics in Asia." X. 

Wilson's " China." IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X. 

Articles on China in Periodicals (see Appendix) : — 
Contemporary, Vol. 73, "How China may yet be Saved." 

I, VII. 
Fortnightly, Vol. 44, " The Youngest of the Saints." IX. 
Forum, Vol. 14, "A Chinaman on Our Treatment of 

China." VI. 



APPENDIX 

LEADING MISSIONARY PERIODICALS 

Assembly Herald (Pres.), U. S. 

Baptist Missionary Magazine (A. B. M. U.), U. S. 

Chronicle London Missionary Society, England. 

Church Missionary Intelligencer (C. M. S.), England. 

Foreign Missionary Tidings (Pres.), Canada. 

Friends' Missionary Advocate (Friends), U.S. 

Helping Hand'CVf.B.F.U.S.), U.S. 

Life and Light for IFoman (Woman's Board, Cong.), U.S. 

Messenger and Record (Pres.), England. 

Mission Studies (Board of Interior, Cong.), U.S. 

Missionary Gleaner (Dutch Reformed), U. S. 

Missionary Herald (Baptist), England. 

Missionary Herald (Cong.), U. S. 

Missionary Link (Woman's Union), U. S. 

Missionary Outlook (M. E.), Canada. 

Missionary Review of the World (Interdenominational), 

U.S. 
Missionary Tidings (Christian), U. S. 
Spirit of Missions (P. E. Church), U. S. 
Woman''s Missionary Friend (M. E.), U. S. 
Woman's Work for Woman (Pres.). L^ S. 
Woman's Missionary Magazine (United Free Church), 

Scotland. 
Women's Missionary Magazine (U. P.), U. S. 

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS 

[Owing to the complex international situation in China, 
the number of valuable magazine articles concerning that 
country, since the memorable summer of 1900, is unusu- 
245 



^^ 



246 BEX CHBISTUS 

ally large. Besides the few mentioned below, the student 
should consult the files of denominational papers, and 
publications like the Outlook, to which Dr. Smith is a 
regular contributor. — F. J. D.] 

Atlantic, Sept., 1900, " Russia's Interest in China." Oct., 
1900, "The Crisis in China." Jan., 1901, "The 
Empress Dowager." Dec, 1902, "Chinese Dislike 
of Christianity." 

Century, Dec, 1900, " The Struggle on the Peking Wall." 
Jan., 1901, "Besieged in Peking." Mar., 1901,. 
" Flight of the Empress Dowager." May, 1901, " A 
Missionary Journey in China." Sept., 1902, " A Visit 
to the Empress Dowager." 

Contemporanj, July, 1900, " A Scramble for China." Aug., 

1900, "Who's Who in China." Oct., 1900, "Our 
Future Policy in China." June, 1902, " The Genius 
of China." 

Fortnightly, June, 1900, " The Last Palace Intrigue at 
Peking." Aug., 1900, "Peking — and After." Feb., 

1901, " China and Non-China." May, 1901, " China, 
Reform, and the Powers," 

Forum, July, 1900, " Chinese Civilization : The Ideal and 
the Actual." Nov., 1900, "Taming of the Dragon." 

Harper, Oct., 1900 (1) " Wei Hai Wei," (2) " The Chinese 
Resentment." Jan., 1903, " Chinese and Western 
CivHization" (by Wu Ting Fang). 

Nineteenth Century, July, 1900, " Our Vacillation in 
China and Its Consequences." 

North American, July, 1900, "Mutual Helpfulness be- 
tween China and the United States." 

Review of Reviews, Sept., 1900, "Can China be Saved?" 
Jan., 1901, " Foreign Missions in the Twentieth Cen- 
tury." Mar., 1902, " Practical Missions." May, 1902, 
"Return of the Court from Peking" (from Revue 
de Paris). July, 1902, "System of Modern Colleges / 
for China." 



APPENDIX 247 

LIST OF TWENTY BOOKS i 

At Moderate Phices, Most Useful in Course of 
Study on China 

General Works 

"Dawn on the Hills of T'ang." Harlan P. Beach. 

Student Vol. ^-.Y. .*^0.75. 
" Princely Men in the Heavenly Kingdom." United Soc. 

C. E., Boston. 10.50. 

People and Life 

" Home Life in China." M. I. Bryson. American Tract 

Society, N.Y. $1.00. 
" Chinese Characteristics." A. H. Smith. Revell Co., 

N.Y. 11.25. 
"China: Travels in the Middle Kingdom." James H. 

Wilson. Appleton, N.Y. $1.75. 

Mission Work 

"John Kenneth Mackenzie." M. I. Bryson. EevellCo., 

N.Y. $1.50. 
"The Cross and the Dragon." B. C. Henry. Randolph, 

N.Y. $1.00. 
" China and the Chinese." John L. Nevius, Pres. Board, 

Phil. $0.75. 
"Mission Methods in Manchnria." John Ross. Revell 

Co., N.Y. $1.00. 

' History 

"China" (Story of the Nations Series). R. K.Douglas. 

Putnam, N.l\ $1.50. 
"A Cycle of Cathay." W. A. P. Martin. Revell Co., 

N.Y. $2.00. 

1 Several desirable hooks are excluded from this list on 
account of their high price. Secure, if possible, other books 
mentioned at the close of each chapter. 



248 BEX CHBI8TUS 



Present Political Situation 

"China's Only Hope." Chang Chih Tung. Revell Co., 

N.Y. $0.75. 
"Missions and Politics in Asia." Robert E. Speer. 

Revell Co., N.Y. fl.OO. 
« The Crisis in China." Harper Bros., IST.Y. $1.00. 

The Boxer Uprising 

" Fire and Sword in Shansi." E. H. Edwards. Revell 

Co., N.Y. ,|1.50. 
" The Tragedy of Paotingf u." I. C. Ketler. Revell Co., 

N.Y. $2.00. 

Religious and Educational 

" Confucianism and Taoism." R. K. Douglas. Nelson, 

N.Y. $1.00. 
"The Educational Conquest of the Far East." Robert 

E. Lewis. Revell Co., N.Y. $1.00. 
"Two Heroes of Cathay." Luella Miner. Revell Co., 

N.Y. $1.00. 



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INDEX 



Abeel, David, 136, 168, 186. 
Allen, Y. J., 193. 
Amherst, Lord, 133. 
Amoy, 27, 32, 139. 
Ancestral worship, 80, 88. 
Anhui, 36. 
Ann Arbor, 183. 
Antiquity, 1, 12, 121. 
Area, 2. 

Arnold, Edwin, 240. 
Ashmore, Dr., 141. 
Audience question, 186. 

Baldwin, Mrs., 81, 169. 

Bamboo, 7. 

Barrett, John, 241. 

Beach, H. P., 215. 

Bible societies, 174, 191 ; trans- 
lations, 132, 144 ; women, 174. 

Bishop, Isabella Bird, 180, 216. 

Blake, Lady, 172. 

Blind, 161. 

Blodget, Henry, 148. 

Books, bamboo, 11; Buddhist, 
67; destruction of, 14; ency- 
clopaedia, 23 ; "of Changes," 
57,59; "Shuo Wen," 15, 19; 
60, 62, 78, 131, 156, 194, 215, 
235. 

Boone, Dr., 143. 

Boulger, D. C, 115. 

Boxers, 64, 78, 125, 160, 192, 198, 
206 et seq., 224, 226. 

Brewster, Mr, and Mrs., 161. 

Bridgman, E. C, 136, 144. 

Brown, S. R., 158. 

Buddhism, 15, 17, 61, 67 et seq. 

Burns, W. C, 141. 



Cambridge Band, 151. 
Canals, 5; Grand, 21, 30, 31. 
Canton, 27, 33, 127, 137, 198. 
Chang Chih Tung, 116, 209. 
Channing, Blanche M., 164. 
Chao, Mrs., 178. 
Chefoo, 31, 33, 149, 161. 
Chekiang, 19, 32, 124, 216. 
Chentung Liang Cheng, 39. 
Chihli, 5, 23, 29, 149, 207, 216. 
Christian Associations, 202,235; 

Endeavor, 202, 236. 
Chu Fu-tze, 55. 
Chu Hsi, 19, 36. 
Ch'ung Ch'ing, 35. 
Clarke, F. E., 242. 
Classics, 17, 19, 20, 141. 
Climate, 6. 

Colleges, 148, 234, 239. 
Combs, Dr., 180. 
Conceit, 8, 26, 126. 
Confucius, 12, 16, 31, 44 e« seq. 

Sayings of, 80 ; 96, 175. 
Conservatism, 96, 101. 
Cooper, T. T., 107. 
Cumming, Miss Gordon, 241. 
Customs service, 147. 

Darwin, Charles, 241. 
Denby, Charles, 163, 217. 
Diffusion Society, 194, 205, 214. 
Dispensaries, 159. 
Distrust, 104. 
Door of Hope, 183. 
Dragon, 61 ; Throne, 22. 
Dudgeon, Dr., 148, 187. 
Dynasties, Chou, 11, 59; Han, 
14, 227; Hsai, 10; Manchu, 



253 



254 



INDEX 



25; Ming, 21, 122; Mongol, 
20,68,122; Sui,21,67; Sung, 
19, 32, 68: T'ang, 4, 16, 51, 
68.76; Tsin, 13. 

East India Co., 127, 129, 132, 
138. 

Edkins, Mr., 148. 

Education, 144. 168, 194, 234, 

Emperors, Chia Ch'ing, 26; 
Ch'ien Lung, 26 ; Ch'in Shih 
Huang, 13 ; Chu Muan Chang, 
21; Hsien Feng, 28; K'ang 
Hsi, 25, 70 ; Kao Tsung, 17 ; 
Kuang Hsu, 117, 204, 231; 
Ming Ti, 67; P'ing Ti, 14; 
Shun, 10; Tai Tsung, 17; 
Tao Kuang, 27; T'ung Chih, 
28; Yang Ti, 21; Yao, 10; 
" YeUow," 15 ; Yung Cheng, 
26. 

Faber, Ernst, 54, 62, 195, 205. 

"Face." 107. 

Famine, 6 ; Great, 187, 228. 

Farming, methods of, 4. 

"Feng-shui," 9. 

Fitch, G. F., 197. 

Five Relations, 47, 55, 89, 104. 

Foochow, 27, 32, 139, 169, 193, 

198. 
Food supply, 6. 
Foot-binding, 18, 173, 202. 
Foreigners, sentiment toward, 

94, 206. 
Formosa, 27, 32. 
Forum, 241. 

Foster, Mrs. Arnold, 217. 
Fukien, 32, 95, 161, 200, 216. 
Fulton, A. A., 202; Mary H., 

184. 

Gamble, William, 196. 
Genghis Khan, 20. 
" Glad Tidings Village," 189. 
Gordon, Charles George, 28. 
Gracey, J. T., 40. 



Graham, J. M., 219. 
Griffin, Lepel, 81. 

Hangchow, 19, 32, 149. 
Hankow, 36, 192. 
Headland, Dr. 176. 
Heber, Eeginald,-242. 
Herodotus of China, 15. 
Hobson, Dr., 138. 
Holcombe, Chester, 167. 
Honan, 36. 

Hong Kong, 33, 144, 172, 198. 
Hospitals, 137, 159, 182. 
Howard, Dr., 180. 
Howe, Julia Ward, 162. 
Hue, Abbe, 120, 123, 155. 
Hu King Eug, 182. 
Hunan, 35, 76, 149, 203. 
Hunt, P. R.,198. 
Hupeh, 36, 216. 

Ideographs, 3, 11. 

Immigrants, 23, 33. 

India, 6, 67, 127, 135, 189, 221. 

Indirection, 103. 

Industry, 90. 

Infanticide, 58. 

Ink invented, 15. 

Insincerity, 105. 

Irishmen of China, 33. 

Itinerating, 156. 

Japan, 13, 16, 28, 59, 137, 199. 

Jesuits, 60, 123. 

Jews, 15, 49. 

John, Griffith, 149, 193. 

Kahn, Ida, 173, 183. 
Kansuh, 38, 76. 
Kerr, Dr., 161, 183. 
Kiangsu, 31, 216. 
Elindergartens, 175. 
Kipling, 41. 
Kuang Hsu, 231. 
Kuangsi, 33, 36, 70. 
Kuangtung, 27, 33, 123, 216. 
Kuan Yin, 74. 



INDEX 



255 



Kublai Khan, 20, 122. 
Ku Ch'eng, 33, 200. 
Kueichou, 34. 
Kung, Priuce, 28. 
Kuo Sung Tao, 188. 

Lao-tze, 59, 62. 

Legge, Dr., 51, 54. 

Liang A-fa, 134. 

Li Hung Chang, 30, 36, 52, 54, 

155, 180. 
Literature, 15, 17, 18, 26, 194. 
Little, Mrs., 117, 202. 
Liu, Deacon, 160. 
Lockhart, William, 138, 148. 
Loess, 5, 37. 
London Times, 40. 
Lui K'un Yi, 209. 

Macao, 33, 130. 

Madison, James, 129. 

Mail, China, 185. 

Manchuria, 6, 24, 28, 38, 64, 
152, 187, 201, 207, 216. 

Marco Polo, 20. 

Marsh, Dr., 81. 

Martin, W. A. P., 48, 71, 149, 
242. 

Ma Tuan Lin, 19. 

McArthur, Alexander, 242. 

McKenzie, Dr., 148. 

Meadows, T. T., 139. 

Medhurst, W. H., 135, 142, 144. 

Medical work, 179. 

Mencius, 12, 31, 55, 70. 

Mills, Mrs., 161. 

Milne, Robert, 131, 144. 

Minerals, 8, 34. 

Missions, Am. Board, 136, 152, 
169, 198 ; Baptist, 141, 169, 177, 
189, 195; China Inland, 150, 
198 ; Episcopal, 142, 149, 169, 
198 ; Reformed, 142 ; German, 
141 ; London, 128, 152 ; Meth- 
odist, 142, 150, 169, 180, 187 ; 
198; Presbyterian, 38, 140, 
143, 149, 152, 169, 182, 187, 



196, 198, 199; Roman Cath- 
olic, 121,188; Union, 169. 

Mohammedanism, 18, 53, 76 et 
seq., 222. 

Mongolia, 20, 68. 

Monte Corvino, 121. 

Morrison, Robert, 129, 140, 191. 

Muirhead, William, 142, 149, 
218. 

Nanking, 22, 27, 31, 140, 149. 
Napoleon, 39; "of China," 13. 
Native Christians, 210, 225. 
Neander, 39. 
Nestorians, 37, 120, 222. 
Nevius, J. L., 149. 
Niles, Mary, 183. 
Ningpo, 27, 32, 139, 197. 
North American Review, 162. 

Olyphant, Mr., 136. 
Opium, 27, 37, 90, 160. 

Pao Tmg Fu, 30. 

Paper money, 18. 

Parker, Peter, 137. 

Parliament of Religions, 5, 97. 

Patriotism, 95. 

Peking, 2, 20, 24, 28, 30, 63, 127, 
148, 173, 186, 198, 231; Ga- 
zette, 18, 53, 54; University, 
198. 

Peng Kuang Yu, 52, 97, 108. 

Persecutions, 199, 208. 

Plain, Great, 6, 31, 36, 38, 85. 

Population, 2, 14, 17, 84, 221. 

Poverty, 58, 90, 92, 158. 

Prince, of Peace, 14; of litera- 
ture, 18. 

Printing presses, 133, 192, 196, 
214. 

Provinces, 29. 

Queue, 64. 

Railroads, 30, 31, 35, 38, 203. 
Ralph, Julian, 40, 



2b6 



INDEX 



Bamazau fast, 76. 

'Reed, W. B., 240. 

Reforms, 29, 35, 203, 230. 

Reid, Gilbert, 39. 

Ricei, Matthew, 123. 

Ricbard, Timothy, 69, 189, 195, 

215. 
Rivers, 2, 21, 30, 33, 37. 
Roberts, Dr., 148. 
Roman Catholics, 206, 222. 
Russia, 31, 38. 

Salt wells, 9, 35. 
Schools, 17, 150, 157, 169, 171,233. 
Secret sects, 77 et seq., 222. 
Seward, G. F., 163; W. H., 41. 
Shanghai, 27, 30, 32, 135, 139, 

172, 183, 188, 190, 196. 
Shansi, 5, 9, 23, 37, 95, 188, 207, 

232. 
Shantung, 12, 23, 31, 38, 95, 

135, 149, 226. 
Shensi, 37, 76, 189. 
Si Ngan Fu, 29, 37, 121. 
Singapore, 137, 168. 
Smith, Mrs. A. H., 171; Moses, 

80. 
Solidarity, 85. 
Soochow, 31, 149. 
Speer, William, 115. 
Ssuch'uan, 9, 35, 149, 199, 213. 
Stewart, Mr., 200. 
Stone, Mary, 182. 
Stronach, 144. 
Strong, Josiah, 238. 
Superstitions, 63. 
Suspicion, 104. 
Swatow, 18, 33, 141. 

T'ai P'ing Rebellion, 27, 31, 34, 
36, 135, 140, 143. 



T'ai Shan, 31. 

Taoism, 59 et seq. 

Tartars, 19, 23. 

Taylor, J. H., 150 ; Mrs. F. H., 

218. 
Temples, 53, 67, 72; Temple 

Bar, 115. 
Three Kingdoms, 16, 67. 
Tientsin, 30, 54, 145, 148, 154, 

180. 
Titus, Mrs. E. C, 217. 
Tract societies, 191, 198. 
Training schools, 177. 
Treaties, 145. 
Tuan Fang, 209. 

Unity, 50, 89, 142, 222. 225. 
University, Peking, 149, 198; 

Tientsin, 162. 
Untruthfulness, 105. 

Valignani, 122, 128. 

Wall, Great, 13, 38. 

War, methods of, 12; with 
France, 28; with Great Brit- 
ain, 146 ; with Japan, 28, 32, 
203 ; Opium, 27. 

Wei Hai Wei, 31. 

Williams, S. W., 16, 21, 27, 37, 
52, 136, 188. 

Williamson, Dr., 182, 194, 218. 

Woman's work, 167. 

Woodhull, H. C, 163. 

Woolston sisters, 170. 

Worthley, Evelyn, 81. 

Wu, Mrs. 180. 

Yates, Dr. and Mrs., 143. 
Yuan Shih K'ai, 209. 
Yunnan, 34. 



HAPPINESS 

Essays on the Meaning of Life 

By CARL. HILTY 

University of Bern 



Translated by FRANCIS Q. PEABODY 
Professor of Christian Morals, Harvard University 

Qoth X2mo $(*25 net 



CONTENTS 

I. The Art of Work. 

II. How TO FIGHT THE BATTLES OF LiFE. 

III. Good Habits. 

IV. The Children of the World are Wiser than 

the Children of Light. 
V. The Art of having Time. 
VI. Happiness. 
VII. The Meaning of Life. 



" The author makes his appeal not to discussion, but to 
life • • . ; that which draws readers to the Bern professor is 
his capacity to maintain in the midst of important duties 
of public service and scientific activity an unusual detach- 
ment of desire and an interior quietness of mind." — J^ew 
York Times. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



THE QUEST OF HAPPINESS 

A STUDY OF VICTORY OVER LIFe's TROUBLES 
By NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS 

Pastor of Plymouth Churchy Brooklyn; author of ^' The 

Influence of Christ in Modern Life^"* etc. 

Cloth, Decorated Borders, ^i-So ^^^ 

COMMENTS 

I find " The Quest of Happiness ■" a very rich and beauti- 
ful work. It is eminently a book for the home. Wherever it 
is known it must make life sweeter and more wholesome. 
Philip S. Moxom, Pastor of South Congregational Church, 
Springfield, Mass. 

It is a book full of help and sympathy, marked by a wide 
acquaintance with literature and with life, and by a true in- 
sight into those conditions which make for the truest and best 
existence. S. P. Cad man, Pastor of Central Congregational 
Church, Brooklyn. 

It is a consummate statement of the highest conception of 
the nature of human life, and of the only methods by which 
its meaning and possibilities can be attained. Dr. Hillis is not 
only a great master of style, but a serene satisfa61:ion with 
God's method of moral government breathes from every page 
and makes the teacher trustworthy. Charles Frederic 
Goss. 

"The Quest of Happiness" is Dr. Hillis's very best book. 
It is strong, vivid, clear, and has a certain indefinable human 
quality which will be sure to give it a large circulation and 
make it a source of great helpfulness. I especially enjoyed the 
"Forewords." They would make an attra6live volume in 
themselves. Amory H. Bradford, Pastor of First Congre- 
gational Church, Montclair, N. J. 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



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